A Doc, a Looney, and a Box
by M.N.Moore
Summary: The Doctor, with Amy and Rory in tow, suddenly finds himself facing a mystery-who was the young witch named Hermione? And what is he going to do with the ever more eccentric Luna, his newest acquisition? Sequel to A Doc, a Bookworm, and a Box.
1. Imaginary Friends

**A Doc, A Looney and a Box**

**Author's Note: **First Chapter finished! I've been batting it around for a little while, trying to figure out just how I wanted to introduce my dear Luna into the story, and I think I've finally found a fairly good way of doing so. For all of you who haven't read it this story is a sequel to A Doc, A Bookworm, and a Box, and I would highly suggest reading that first as a lot of the plot in this story will pick up with what happened after the events of the first.

**Imaginary Friends**

Christmas morning dawned bright and early, a crisp layer of snow covering every inch of ground. Harry Potter was fast asleep in bed when he heard the door creak and a patter of footsteps attempt to sneak their way in. Under the covers, he reached over to nudge his wife awake, opening his eyes just enough to wink at her mere seconds before they were under attack.

"Daddy, daddy!" James called out, flying onto the bed and directly on top of Harry. "Time for presents!"

"Urgh! You're getting heavy!" moaned Harry jokingly as he reached down to tousle the boys hair, sending him into a fit of giggles. He and Ginny sat up just in time for their second son to climb up onto the bed, thumb stuck firmly in his mouth.

"Al wants presents too," said James. "But he said it's okay if I open mine first," he added quickly, glancing surreptitiously at his mother and father to see if they had bought his story.

"I'll bet," said Harry, yawning loudly before scooping up James in one arm and Albus in the other. "But breakfast first. Then maybe we'll see what Santa bought you."

"All right!" shouted James. Ginny laughed, pushing her hair out of her eyes as she climbed out of bed, kissing both boys and then her husband before making her way down to the kitchen.

Harry managed to shuttle both boys back to their bedroom, getting them to brush their teeth and (unsuccessfully) comb their hair before they rushed back down to the kitchen, where the boys impatiently devoured their breakfast before rushing to the pile of shiny presents underneath the Christmas tree. Albus, being the youngest, went first, despite his brothers protests. He spent a half hour tearing through the packages, admiring everything from the thickly knit jumper his grandmother had sent him to the child-size Firebolt his father had bought him.

When it was James' turn he tore through his gifts, protesting when his mother insisted he change into his own jumper, shouting excitedly over the package sent by his Uncle George from the WWW and chasing down the golden snitch that escaped from the box his father had left for him.

By the time this ritual was finished it was nearing noon, and Ginny shipped the boys off to their rooms to change for the annual trip to the Burrow, where they would reunite with their cousins and wait eagerly for the traditional Christmas dinner, which was still prepared by Mrs. Weasley every year without fail, no matter how expansive the Weasley (and now Potter) brood became.

"I'll meet you there later," said Harry when the boys had disappeared.

"Oh?" said Ginny as she scooped up the now empty plates and sent the scraps of wrapping paper careening into the rubbish bin. "Do you have Ministry business?"

Harry shook his head. He moved to the washroom, changing into a clean set of robes and brushing a hand through his hair. "I was going to go see Luna, actually," he said casually.

Ginny froze, turning to stare at him. "Ah," she said quietly. After a moment she continued with what she was doing. "Has there been any change?" she asked after a moment.

"Well, no," he said. "None at all, really. I just thought…well, since her father hasn't been around and she doesn't really have anybody else…well, nobody should be alone at Christmas."

"You're right," said Ginny. "The boys and I will see you later. Make sure you tell her we all said hi," she added, smiling when Harry came over and leaned down to kiss her. "And this one, too," she added, placing a hand on her still flat stomach.

"Ah, how could I forget the newest Potter. Merry Christmas, little Lily or Remy," he said, leaning down, kissing Ginny right on top of her belly. He walked out of the house before disapparating, appearing right in front of St. Mungo's. He walked right through the front doors, waving at the front desk before making his way to the lift. As the doors were closing he heard a shout and put his hand out to stop them.

"Hey Harry, Merry Christmas," said Neville Longbottom as he pressed his way inside.

"Merry Christmas, Neville. Visiting your parents?" he said.

Neville nodded. "You're here for Luna?" he said. When Harry responded in the affirmative Neville reached out, putting his hand on his arm. "I know," he said quietly. "I was going to stop by and see her too, but I haven't the time. Can you tell her I said hello? I've heard that there hasn't been any change since they put her in. Have you…"

Harry shook his head. It had been a year since the Ministry had decided in favor of committing Luna to the care of St. Mungo's. Harry himself had been a witness in the case, and try as he might he had been unable to get the Ministry to decide against the order. He had gone at least once a week since then to see her, although the doctors were saying the same thing every time. The delusions that had seemed so harmless when she was younger had taken over her mind, to the point that she could no longer tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

The greatest delusion of all was Luna's imaginary friend, the girl she had spent the better part the time after the fall of Voldemort trying to convince everybody had really existed. The girl she called Hermione.

Harry and Neville parted at the their floor, Harry turning down a quiet hall and making his way down to Room 19. The orderly at the end of the hall waved when he saw Harry, standing up and going through his keys to let Harry into the room.

When he entered he saw nothing but an empty room, walls scattered with drawings of all the things that existed in Luna's mind. There were strange crumple-horned creatures with wicked eyes and small furry monsters, and everywhere there was the girl, a pretty creature with wildly curled hair and dark, intelligent eyes. Harry glanced over the drawings and finally found Luna sitting by the window.

She was looking out over the street below, face turned away from Harry. Her long, wavy hair fell past her waist, shining brightly against a royal-blue robe that fell to her ankles. "Merry Christmas, Harry," she said after a long moment of silence. Then turning she smiled, her wide blue eyes sparkling happily.

"Merry Christmas, Luna," said Harry, and closing the space between them he gave her a warm hug, settling himself down at the seat opposite her. He reached into his robes, pulling out a small package wrapped in silver.

"A present?" she said airily, plucking the object from Harry's hand. She stared at it for a long moment. "It's very pretty," she said, and began to sit it back down when Harry stopped her, repressing a chuckle.

"You have to open it," he said.

"Oh. Right," said Luna. She plucked the paper aside with her slender fingers, revealing a small glass orb. "What is it?" she said.

"A Remembrall. Like the one Neville's gran gave him when we were in school. It's not much, I just thought you might like it."

"It's very pretty," said Luna. She held it in her palm, staring at the shimmering surface. "Tell Neville I'm sorry he couldn't make it to see me, and hello."

"I…what?" said Harry. He was about to ask her how she knew he'd seen Neville but stopped himself, shaking his head.

"It'll help you when you're…you know, concentrating on things," he said. "I just thought maybe it could help you sort out your thoughts."

"It was a lovely thought, but my thoughts are fairly sorted," said Luna with a smile. "What about you, Harry?" she asked. "Is there anything you've forgotten?"

"Quite a bit. It's easy to forget things when you've got a pregnant wife and two trolls running the house," he said with a laugh. Luna smiled, offering him the Remembrall without a word. He took it from her, holding it in his palm. Suddenly a bright blue light shone from within, glowing so brightly that it stung his eyes. "What the…" he stammered, almost dropping it when Luna plucked it out of his grasp.

"It's all right," she said. "You'll remember her when the time is right."

"Luna," said Harry. "Don't…I mean…listen, this Hermione person can't be real, how could you be the only person who remembers her?"

"It's not about seeing what's there. It's about seeing what's not there," she said with a small smile.

Harry chuckled, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. "I better go," he said, standing. "You take care of yourself Luna," he said, moving away.

Luna watched him leave, waiting until the door had closed behind him before picking the Remembrall back up. She stared at its surface for a second, as if waiting, but the glass remained clear. Although she wasn't certain why, or how she remembered, Luna knew everything about the girl that had once been a sister to Harry Potter-a girl who most people had thought would grow to be one of the greatest witches of her time.

The memory was fuzzy around the edges, like markings made in pencil that somebody had tried to rub away but couldn't. Because of that there were details that escaped her-the sound of her voice, or the clothes she wore. But there were other things that were firmly imprinted in her mind and refused to go away.

Outside the doors of St. Mungo's, Harry looked back up to the topmost floor. He squinted for a moment at the flash of blue at her window, feeling an unexplained sense of loss grip him tightly for several moments. But shaking his head, he walked away, Apparating away to The Burrow, and leaving Luna behind.

All that day the nagging sense that something wasn't right stayed with him. That night he brought up the sensation to Ginny.

"What do you mean, you think that maybe she's right?" she said.

"I don't know," said Harry. "It's just…do you think maybe this Hermione person might have been real? Some sort of massive memory charm, or worse? I think I might go to the Department of Secrets, have them look into it. I mean, Luna's always been a bit…" he paused, looking for the best word to use. "Off." He finally settled on, nodding to himself. "But she's smart and you never know…she may even be able to see something that we can't."

Ginny was thoughtful for a long moment. "You may be right," she said. "Do what you think is best Harry. At the very least then you'll know you did whatever you could for her."

Then, kissing her husband good night, Ginny turned out the light on Christmas Day.

* * *

"Daddy, Daddy! Time for presents!"

Harry's eyes flashed open. He was struck suddenly with a strange sense of déjà vu, but he quickly pushed it away as James and then Albus leapt into bed with him and Ginny.

"Urgh! You're getting heavy!" Harry teased, as the Christmas morning ritual began.

Far away in St. Mungo's Luna was looking out the window. It was Christmas again. The tinkle of holiday music filtered in through her window and she watched the same people pass by as had the morning before. Breakfast was brought in at half past eight, by an orderly in a red velvet cap, who wished her a Merry Christmas and quietly passed her a bottle of butterbeer, snuck in from outside the hospital.

When she had eaten, and the orderly disappeared back to his post, she turned to dig in her dresser for the Remembrall that Harry had given her. It was nowhere to be found. The same thing happened every morning, as it had for several days now.

She waited at the window for Harry, greeting him and smiling when he came in. It was the best part of her day, though it never varied. She remembered when the time loop had first began that she had tried to tell him, over and over, what was going on, but of course nobody had believed her. So she had stopped trying, deciding that she'd rather just enjoy the visits rather than feel guilty and even more alone every time he left her.

Harry came promptly at noon, as he had a dozen times before, and Luna went through the motions of the half-hour conversation as she always did, wondering if the loop would just go on forever or if it would finally spiral downward, growing smaller and smaller until time just poofed out of existence. It was a chilling thought, and it occupied her thoughts as he bid her farewell and she was left alone in her room, where she watched him leave on the street below.

Luna sighed, staring down at the Remembrall that she held in her hand. She quietly tucked it into the pocket of her robe and closed her eyes.

_Ten Years Later_

"I better go. You take care of yourself Luna," said Harry. She watched him leave, smiling sadly to herself as he walked out the door. She glanced down at the Remembrall in her hand, gripping it tightly. She closed her eyes, feeling the weight leave her hand as it suddenly flickered itself out of existence. She took several deep breaths, waiting until she heard the lock move in the door.

"Merry Christmas, Harry," she said, without moving.

The loop had closed in tightly, like a noose around the fabric of the world. Now only this thirty-minute stretch of time seemed to be all that was in existence, and it simply repeated itself, over and over. "I'm sorry, but it's not Harry," said a strange voice.

Luna jumped, turning around quickly. A young man stood there, staring intently at her. He was tall and thin, with longish brown hair. He wore a tweed jacket, the sort of thing muggle professors wore, and a bow tie and suspenders. "Who are you?" she said. He was the first new person that she had seen in a very long time.

"I'm the Doctor. And you're…strange," he said. "Physically part of the time loop the TARDIS has detected by mentally detached from it. The entire earth has been reliving the same moment in time over and over again for a long while now…and you're the only person on this entire planet that's even aware of it. Besides me of course. Now why is that?"

"I'm not certain. What's a Doctor?" said Luna.

"Well I am. Well, I'm THE Doctor, not A Doctor per se. Well…oh, no time to explain. I just think you'd better come with me before your friend shows up again. He's due in…oh…thirty seconds." He reached his hand out and Luna took it, immediately letting herself be pulled out the door by the Doctor and down the hall. The orderly stared blankly at them. "Psychic paper, he thinks I belong to the Ministry of Magic," said the Doctor in explanation.

"Ah," said Luna. They turned down a long corridor, at the end of which a large blue box stood, doors slightly open. A young woman with red hair poked her head out, waving frantically. "Come on!" She called out, and the Doctor and Luna flew through the doors, which the young woman shut firmly behind her.

The Doctor flew to the controls, working them over as the young woman came over and took Luna's hand. "Are you all right?" she said. "The same day over and over for ten years…you must be bored out of your mind!" she said.

"I think it was probably a bit more traumatic than that," said a young man standing nearby. Then, lowering his voice, he said, "I mean, she was already in the…ahem…well, you know."

"I'm not insane," said Luna. "Not entirely, anyway."

"I didn't mean…well…"

"He's my dear husband Rory," said the young woman. "And I'm Amy. Pleased to meet you. This is the TARDIS."

Luna looked around for the first time. The Doctor had left the controls and was staring at her expectantly, arms crossed. She took a few steps forward, remembering that she had stepped into what seemed to be a small blue box and now stood in a vast enclosure of glass and metal, with steps leading to who knew where. "It's nice," she said.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "This is why I don't like witches and wizards," he said. "Takes all the fun out of the dimensional anomaly if they're already used to that sort of thing."

"And just when were you going to tell me there were such things as witches and wizards? On earth? Real magic!" said Amy, turning to the Doctor.

"I don't know, must have slipped my mind. Just learned about it myself," he said.

"So you can just like…wave a wand and…poof!" said Rory, gesturing wildly.

"I'm sure it's a load more complicated than that," said Amy. "Complicated rituals, runes…"

"Actually quite a lot of it is poofing and wand waving," said Luna dreamily.

"Oh." Amy stared at her for a long moment, then shrugged.

The Doctor was reading something on the TARDIS display panel as this conversation went on, and after a long moment he clapped his hand excitedly. "Right! I think I can see where the disruption in time and space is coming from," he said. "And, not surprisingly, it seems to center on our friend here."

"Why me?" said Luna.

"I don't know. Is there anything strange about you? Anything that doesn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the world you know?"

"Everybody has always thought I was looney," said Luna. "Nobody believes in the things that I do. Crumple-horned Snorcacks and Nargles…and they don't believe in Hermione, either."

The Doctor froze, a strange look passing over his face for a moment. "Hermione?" he said strangely.

"Yes. My old friend. She went to school with all of us, but one day I woke up and it was like she had never existed. I was the only person who remembered her. She had been gone for a while…years…I don't know where. But at least people knew who she was. Now they all think she was my imaginary friend."

"Imaginary…friend?" said Amy haltingly. She spun around to look at the Doctor. "I had an imaginary friend once," she said.

"Somebody lost in a crack in time?" said Rory. "But it can't…I mean, it'd have been healed."

"Maybe not if she wasn't part of Amy's timeline. But that doesn't make sense," said the Doctor. But all of a sudden he and Amy both seemed stricken by something.

Amy's eyes widened. "Hermione," she said breathlessly. "I can't…I mean, the girl…"

"Yes, yes, I'd completely forgotten. You got to meet my old self, and…but how can that be possible? I _remember_ doing all those things and there was never…oh," he said, blinking. Amy nodded as he came across the end of that memory. "Oh," he said, a little more quietly. "We lost her. Didn't we?" He was quiet for several seconds, then turned to Luna.

"I'm…I mean…I'm so sorry," he said, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"She isn't dead," said Luna.

"No. I don't think she is," said the Doctor. "Otherwise why would you remember? But right now, and I really hate to say this, that isn't our concern. If we don't stop that time loop the whole earth is going to blink to a stop. The only problem is, to stop the time loop we have to travel outside of it. And the TARDIS isn't having any of that."

"We'd been stuck here for three days before the Doctor managed to find you," said Amy with a sardonic smile.

"What we need is a more organic method of time travel," said the Doctor. "The TARDIS is just too complicated, it's like trying to sneak a battleship through a shopping mall."

"Well, what about a time turner?" said Luna.

"A time what?" said the Doctor.

"A time turner. Wizards use them all the time if they need to be in two places at once. I know where we can get one."

Amy and Rory both turned to look at the Doctor. "Cheap and easy time travel. The magic kind. I kind of like it."

"We aren't that far away. They're kept inside the Ministry of Magic. And as it's Christmas, there shouldn't be that many people around."

"Can you draw?" said the Doctor. Luna nodded, and darting off to somewhere the Doctor returned with a map of London. "Here. Show me," he said, handing it to her along with a pen.

Luna took up the pen, sketching onto the map all of the magical places she knew of in London. She circled their location at St. Mungo's, then sketched in the place where the Ministry of Magic belonged. When she was finished, she handed it off to the Doctor. "

"There's really like this big magical underground?" said Amy, mesmerized. "Oh, I have to see it sometime."

"Why don't we focus on saving the world first?" said Rory.

"Again," said Amy, winking.

"Right! We're off!" said the Doctor. He moved around to the console and began to push at the buttons, pulling levers and adjusting knobs. There was a sudden gasping sound and the entire ship rocked. By the time Luna found her footing they had arrived. She started toward the door but the Doctor shouted, moving to catch her before she touched the knob.

"Right. First things first we need to assess the situation. We're still caught up in the time loop, and it's only getting shorter. Right now we have fifteen minutes. If we don't get the Time Turner back onto the TARDIS before then it'll be back to point A and…here's the kicker…we could all get stuck in it, forever."

"So it's in and out, ASAP," said Rory.

"No. You're staying here. You too Amy, no arguments," said the Doctor. Amy began to protest but the Doctor lifted his finger warningly, turning to Rory. "Keep an eye on her. Or…well, try to anyway. Come on." He took Luna by the hand and pulled her after him and through the door.

Although Luna hadn't often been inside the Ministry, the few times she had been in had imprinted a map of the place on her memory. She recognized their location immediately as being the main entry hall, where Harry and Dumbledore had once fought together against Voldemort, now so very long before.

"It's this way," she said, pulling the Doctor along with her as she started towards the section that housed the Time Turners.

"You're certain?" he asked.

"You act like it's the first time I've broken into the Ministry," said Luna lightly, turning to smile at him. "Trust me. It's this way."

"Then after you," he said. He withdrew his Sonic Screwdriver, although he was certain that it would do very little good where he currently was. Luna saw the gesture, feeling a very rare pain in her chest.

"I wish I had my wand," she said with a small shrug. "It vanished shortly before I was forced into St. Mungo's. Not that they'd have let me keep it anyway."

"Ah," said the Doctor slowly. He was watching her face as they walked along, studying her quietly as if not certain what to make of this new creature. "Did you hear that?" he said suddenly, as a small clattering noise echoed faintly around them. Luna shrugged in response.

"So why didn't you let those two come?" she said. "It's not any more dangerous for them than it is for us. And they can't use that box if something happens to you, can they?"

"No…not really," said the Doctor. "You are very astute, aren't you?" he said.

"Mad people usually are," she said. "Hold on, this is it." She went up to a large door, pressing firmly on the handle. It gave after a moment's urging and they found themselves in a long corridor that led lower into the heart of the Ministry. Luna continued leading the way. They walked in silence for several moments.

"You know, it's not that I don't trust them or anything," he said finally.

"Mmm," hummed Luna.

"It's just that…well…they're so very human. I'm not sure how they'd be able to handle knowing about all…this. I'm not sure I know how I'm handling knowing there are so many humans with so much power mucking about," he added.

"Muggles get up to about as much trouble as we do with their guns and bombers and things," said Luna. "At least with magic there's some sort of definition between good and evil. At least, there's supposed to be."

"Isn't that always the case?" the Doctor mumbled. They stopped talking when they reached the chamber that housed the Time Turners. Luna herself picked the instrument that they intended to use, the largest and most ornate of the small hourglasses. Gently placing it around her neck, she moved close to the Doctor and looped the chain around his as well.

"We won't have time to get back to your box unless we use it now, too," she said. The Doctor nodded and Luna turned the hourglass once. They felt themselves propelled momentarily backward.

Their trip back to the TARDIS was unevently, apart from having to dodge their past versions of themselves. "Feels like I've been doing that a fair bit recently," said the Doctor as he brushed his coat off. "And this time I didn't even get a fez."

"Did you get it Doctor?" said Amy, leaning out of the TARDIS as he and Luna approached.

"Got it!" he said. Luna lifted the chain off her neck and handed it to him, and without hesitation he ran into the ship and immediately began the process of wiring the Time Turner into the mainframe of the TARDIS.

"The problem I was having," he said after several long moments, "was that whatever is causing this particular Time Loop has nothing at all to do with time. At least, not the proper sort of time that I deal with. It's magical in nature, of that much I'm certain."

"And it's centered around her," said Amy, glancing at Luna.

"It appears so. I'm not certain why, though. But we're about to find out!" He pressed a lever and all of a sudden the TARDIS was off. The lights began to flash, the TARDIS struggling to break free when all of a sudden everybody was thrown to the floor. Luna felt like her stomach was spinning, and thought it was very likely that she was going to be sick, when all of a sudden the rotation stopped.

"Where are we?" said Amy.

"We are on a train in the Scottish Countryside," said the Doctor. "On September the first, 1992."

"My first day of school," said Luna in surprise.

"Mmm. Looks like there's something to this. Let's have a look."

All four stepped out of the TARDIS. It was the Hogwarts Express, there was no doubt about that to Luna, and even she couldn't help but gasp a little in surprise when she saw that they were standing at the entrance to an almost empty compartment. The only passenger inside was a small blonde girl of eleven, who was dressed in bright blue and neon green, a spinning silver orb around her neck.

"Is that you?" said Amy. Luna nodded, and they all watched the girl for a moment before Amy asked, "Why are you all alone?"

"I'm really quite shy," said Luna. "I always have been. It's because people don't really believe the things I do. I spent half the journey in this car, by myself. It was Hermione who…" Luna paused, looking at the lonely little girl and then out at the window, where the sky had begun to darken. "Who introduced me to Ginny, and some other girls. And Neville Longbottom. We were friends, sort of, for a couple of years. Even before I met Harry."

"But if Hermione didn't exist…then…" Amy's eyes widened. "Could that have caused the Time Loop?"

"Anomalies like that usually just sort of heal themselves," said the Doctor. "But I do think we ought to stick back here and watch for a little while."

At that the four of them found a spot where they could watch the girl without themselves being noticed.

"Now I want you to think," said the Doctor after several moments of silence. "Think very carefully. Can you remember how exactly that first meeting happened? How exactly did you meet all of them?"

"They thought I was mad, even then. But they were at least nice," said Luna. "Ginny ran in here because she got the giggles when the other girls mentioned Harry. Hermione came in after her and they sat in here with me for a little while."

"Ah…okay. But if Hermione doesn't exist at just this moment then Ginny doesn't…"

He trailed off as the door to the compartment flew open. Ginny came rushing through, cheeks bright red, and seeing only Luna sat down at the opposite end and stared steadily through the window. The young Luna watched her for a moment, her own cheeks turning pink, and then hid her face behind the pages of a magazine.

"I was terribly shy. I always have been, even though most people don't really realize it," said Luna as she watched the girl. Then before anybody could stop her Luna moved through the car, past Ginny, and sat down next to her younger self. She leaned down, whispering something in the girls' ear that nobody else could hear. The girl glanced up, eyes widening, and she looked immediately at the girl who was sitting on the other side of the train. Luna smiled and hid herself again behind the door with Amy, Rory and the Doctor.

After a few moments the younger Luna stood up, making her way over to where Ginny sat. "Hello. I'm Luna Lovegood, nice to meet you," she said, reaching out with one slender hand.

All of a sudden it seemed that the entire world seemed to shift. "It's sorting itself out! Come on!" said the Doctor, pulling everybody inside the TARDIS before slamming the doors shut. They immediately took off once again, the sound of the ship roaring in everybody's ears. There was a sudden flash as Time expanded all around them. The TARDIS continued roaring for just a few moments more, and then they had made their final landing.

The Doctor pulled the Time-Turner from the TARDIS console and then handed it to Luna. "There you are," he said congenially. "I think you earned that fair and square." He tossed it to her and she caught it lightly with both hands. The Doctor moved behind her and then opened up the door that led into her bedroom. Luna stared out into dreamily for a few moments, and then moving through it went to the window.

"It's Boxing Day," she said, a faint smile forming on her lips as she saw the large crowd gathered below on dirty snow. She smiled, then turned around to look at her three companions. "Thank you, I suppose," she said. "For saving me…and everything."

"You are a brilliant young lady," said the Doctor. He moved forward, taking her by each elbow. "And I'm going to see to it that you're released from this hospital as soon as possible…"

"I think I know a way to get her out of here sooner," said Amy, eyebrows raised. Both the Doctor and Rory turned to stare at her.

"What do you mean?" said Rory, looking somewhat suspicious.

"I mean that I've never, EVER, met a real life witch before and I'd like to see a little bit more hocus pocus before we throw her back, Doctor," said Amy.

"What?" said both the Doctor and Rory.

"She's not here for our amusement," said the Doctor.

"Oh, come off it, it's not like she's going to be missed," said Amy, waving her arms around at the otherwise empty room. "And we still need to figure out what's going on with this Hermione person."

The Doctor stood where he was for a long moment, staring into Luna's eyes. Finally he sighed deeply. "How about it then? All of time and space in a little blue box with a madman and these two kids, newly married and crazy in love, for company…does it sound good to you, Miss Luna Lovegood?"

"It sounds amazing!" she said. "But first, I'm going to need a wand."

"A…wand?" said the Doctor. "You mean a wooden wavey magic thing?"

"Maybe," said Luna. "But…"

She reached into his pocket, pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver. "But if you have an old one of these, I think I could make it work."

Several minutes later the Doctor emerged from a storage room in the TARDIS, a long metal cylinder in hand. "I don't remember which one of us it belonged to, but I found it floating around down there…say, how exactly do you think you're going to make that work?"

"All a real wand needs to work is a magical core," said Luna. "And as it so happens I have one right here. Can you open it up for me?"

"Open…ah," said the Doctor, and using his own Sonic he went to work on the old one.

She pulled out its core, and pulling the Time Turner from her robes she slid it neatly into place on the inside. As she screwed it back closed it glowed with a bright silvery light. Luna turned, pointing it at the ceiling.

"Lumos," she whispered. There was a high-pitched whirring and then a bright light filled the room for a few moments. Luna smiled happily and Amy, obviously impressed, leaned over to Rory.

"Sonic Wand. Very nice," she said.

"All right then! Luna's got a wand, Amy and Rory are still our proud newlyweds and we have saved the earth…once again! Who's up for a field trip to the Mesozoic?"

The TARDIS whirred and disappeared. Thousands years away Luna opened the doors and leaned out, watching as newly made stars blinked happily in the night sky. It was a time before man…before all the pain and suffering of the life she had known had ever come to be. She took a deep breath of the cool night air, her mind suddenly feeling more right than it had in a very long while. "Harry Potter," she whispered to the empty darkness. "One day I'll find you and thank you for everything you've been to me. But it's time I go off for a little while, and find myself. I think, for the first time."

She smiled, letting her hair lift up and caress her face in the zero gravity. Then, taking a deep breath, she took a step back and into the ship where her new friends, and her new home, awaited.


	2. High Noon

**A Doc, a Looney and a Box**

**Author's Note: **Enjoying writing Luna and the Doctor together. They're a good pair. I think I'm really going to like having my favorite Harry Potter character and my (new) favorite Doctor having adventures together. I have a lot of free time at the moment, so hopefully I'll be updating a little more often now. We'll see if that works out.

**High Noon**

"Ooh, do another!"

Amy and Rory sat, utterly fascinated, next to Luna on the deck of the TARDIS. With an amused and somewhat mysterious smile on her lips she pointed her newly crafted Sonic Wand at Amy's palm. With a quickly uttered incantation, and a small whirring from the device, a teacup appeared.

"Is that real?" gulped Rory.

"It's piping hot!" squealed Amy. Then, glancing at Luna as if to be certain it was okay, she took a delicate sip from the cup. "And Earl Gray too. Loads of sugar and milk, just the way I like it."

"All right, all right!" said the Doctor suddenly. He had been leaning back against the door of the TARDIS, a painfully bored expression on his face. "If the two of you are done playing with our shiny new toy, I'd like to remind you that we are currently stationed in the American old west. Cowboys and Indians, white hats and black…does that interest you at all? I could just take us all back to London for chips…"

"No! Sorry, Doctor," said Amy, as if used to appeasing his moods. She pouted at him, twining her arm through Rory's. "Of course we're glad to be here. Just getting to know our new companion. Making her feel welcome. Isn't that right, dearest?" she said, batting her eyelashes at Rory, who inexplicably blushed.

"Ah…yeah. Right. Welcome to you, again, Miss…Lovegood," Rory stammered.

"Just one thing before we go, of course," said Amy. "Luna's still in her bathrobe. Don't you think we ought to find her something a bit less…you know…" She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips suggestively, and the Doctor glanced over at Luna as if just noticing her state of undress for the first time.

"Oh…right. Better take care of that. Amy, why don't you show her to the wardrobe? Rory and I can have some…some manly man time while we wait." He pumped his fist enthusiastically, although the gesture seemed to fall a little short. Neither he nor Rory looked too thrilled as Amy released her new husband and grabbed Luna by the hand, dragging her up one stairway and into a long tunnel.

They passed several rooms before Amy stopped, pushing open a wide double door and stepping into an expansive closet. There was a slightly musty smell about, of ancient dust that might have collected over several centuries.

"I guess just grab what you like," said Amy, herself moving to a long rack of sweaters, skirts and other modern looking garments. "There's things from everywhere in time…you don't even want to know what they'll be wearing in the 2100s!" Her laugh was lyrical and full of wonder, and it occurred to Luna that there was something special about the fact that Amy had been traveling with the Doctor for so long, and had obviously seen so much, and yet still found her entire situation altogether wonderful.

Luna took the time to move slowly through the racks, looking cautiously at everything the room had to offer. In particular she stopped to peruse several battered suits, each different and yet somehow similar, from one resembling the outfit of an older Victorian gentleman to another more casual outfit covered in question marks. Obviously the Doctor had a sense of humor, Luna thought, as there could be no question in her mind whose wardrobe this was.

She paused as she glanced at something hung over the rack. An extraordinarily long scarf, twice her height in length and possibly more, in a variety of colors that brought to her mind something from the 1970s. She picked it up, running her fingers along the soft knit.

"Yeah, I wondered about that too," said Amy. "Can you believe somebody would actually wear that?"

"I quite like it," said Luna. "But the colors are atrocious." She took out her wand, and pointing it directly at the scarf uttered a quick incantation. It was suddenly only two colors, blue and a deep bronze. Luna smiled and picked it up. "Much better."

"That really is a neat trick. And I think I'm going to have to convince you to look over my wardrobe later," said Amy.

Together the two girls raided the rest of the wardrobe, mixing and matching pieces from every era until they came up with something that Luna was completely happy with.

The jacket was a short bolero, something probably picked up by some former companion in the Victorian era of earth's history. It was a deep black, made of a rich brocade, with bronze buttons down the front. Underneath she wore a short blue dress made of flowing chiffon, which had only moments before been an evening gown from who knew when. A pair of black boots completed the ensemble.

"You look amazing! I used to wish I was blonde," said Amy, reaching out to brush a long tendril of hair from Luna's eyes.

"So did I," said Luna airily, failing to notice Amy's widened eyes. "Something's missing," said Luna, and after a moment she thoughtfully withdrew her wand, pointing them at a plain pair of silver earrings.

"Is that…celery?' said Amy, astonished, when she saw what Luna had made.

"You never know when you might want some," said Luna, fastening her newly created jewelry onto her ears.

"You know what?' said Amy, after a long moment of consideration. "I think the Doctor may have finally met his match. Welcome aboard," she laughed, and together they went out to meet the men on deck.

The Doctor quickly jumped up, obviously relieved that they were back. "Ah, there you are! Looking fantastic Luna, I love the scarf. Nice…vegetables," he said, eyeing the earrings.

"Oh, is that what the kids are calling them these days?" said Amy, nudging Luna.

"Well then," he said, moving to the doors. "Is everybody ready to 'roll out'?"

Rory and Amy both made faces.

"Oh, fine," said the Doctor, pushing open the doors. "Let's go!"

"Allons-y!" said Luna excitedly. The Doctor paused, turning to look at her.

"Why did you say that?" he asked.

Luna shrugged. "I don't know. I think it's French for fish soup. Is there something wrong with that?"

The Doctor appeared thoughtful, and then after a few moments patted her on the shoulder. "No, that's just fine. A pleasure to have you on board."

Hot Texas air rushed through the TARDIS doors, carrying with it the fine grit of sand. "Ah, smell that air," said the Doctor, taking a deep breath as he stepped outside.

"It smells like sh…" Rory stopped mid-sentence, glancing over at Amy and Luna. "Like horses," he amended.

"This is so cool!" said Amy. "It's just like out of an old movie."

They were standing in an alley, the blue box conspicuously out of place situated between two wooden-shingled buildings. Luna stepped gingerly out onto the street, watching the passersby. "It's kind of…quiet," she said after a moment, taking a few steps down. The others followed her, and saw that she was right. There was hardly anybody in the street, and the few that were hurried along quickly as if afraid of something.

"Uh…guys," said Amy. She was looking at something that had been pasted to a nearby wall. She ripped it off and turning it around exhibited it for the others to see.

"Wanted, Dead or Alive for Crimes against…wait a minute," said Rory, stopping mid-sentence as he read aloud. "Is that us?"

A crude sketch of four individuals, two men and two women, filled up the middle of the poster.

"Well, that's definitely the Doctor," said Amy, pointing to one of the drawings.

"All right, this is insane. How could we possibly be wanted criminals? We only just got here!" said Rory agitatedly.

But before the Doctor could answer their questions they heard a loud shriek. "It's them!" A woman was pointing directly at the group of four, face pale with astonishment. There were several more shouts and the people in the street scattered.

"That doesn't sound good," said the Doctor.

A few moments of confusion passed. Then there was another man's voice booming loud over the now silent street. "Surrender your weapons and put yer hands in the air!" A man on a black horse rode onto the scene, obviously drawn by the loud screams from earlier.

"What do we do?" said Amy.

"I suggest we 'stick 'em up' and 'reach fer the sky'," said the Doctor.

"I said drop your weapons!" shouted the man.

Exchanging a look with the others, the Doctor removed his Sonic Screwdriver from his coat pocket and set it gingerly on the ground. Luna followed suit with her Sonic Wand. Then all four of them held their hands up. The man jumped down from his horse, and beginning with the Doctor yanked his hands behind his back and tied his wrists together.

"Five seconds out of the box and already being arrested," the Doctor mumbled. "This has got to be some sort of record."

"I'd suggest you shut yer mouth," said the man.

Luna was watching the man stoically with her big blue eyes. "I like your star. It's very pretty," she said.

Amy winced as the man swung around, sticking his face to within an inch of Luna's. "Is that s'posed to be some kind of joke, little filly?" he snapped.

"Ah…ahem, Luna…this man is obviously the sheriff," said Amy, "and he is far too big and important…and strong and intelligent…to be playing games with," she said. It was obvious from the way she spoke that not only was she doing her best to warn Luna not to say anything stupid, she was also unaware of whether or not Luna was going to understand a single thing she said.

The man eyed her suspiciously as he continued to tie up the rest of them. "Yer darn right I don't want no games. Now you just come along quietly. If you don't make a fuss they might not even hang yeh."

"Hang?" Amy mouthed, eyes widening.

"I thought muggles liked setting witches on fire," said Luna.

"Don't you threaten no witchcraft!" shouted the Sheriff, and with that he picked up the two sonic devices and tied his four prisoners together two by two, leading them alongside his horse down the long street to the local jailhouse.

There were exactly two cells in the small ramshackle prison. Amy and Luna were locked in one of these and the Doctor and Rory in the other. The only other prisoner was snoring loudly in the cell with the men. "I can smell the whiskey on him from over here," Amy complained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, it's not all that bad," said the Doctor, gesturing wildly. He hit something metallic. "What was that?"

"I think it was the chamber pot," said Rory.

The Doctor jerked back, yelping loudly.

"So why do they think we're criminals?" said Amy after a moment.

"Well, we aren't," said Rory. "I mean…we're not are we? This isn't some sort of weird time thing is it?"

"I don't think so…" said the Doctor slowly, although he didn't seem to be convinced. There had been an awful lot of weird time stuff lately, enough that he wasn't going to jump to any conclusions too quickly.

"Maybe we should ask ourselves," said Luna.

"Ask ourselves? As in, look inwardly? Philosophical, Luna."

"I think she means that maybe we should ask them," said Amy, pointing at the door.

Nobody had noticed their arrival. They were all standing at the door, dressed from head to toe in black in western wear. Each of the four was a perfect carbon copy of the four time travelers. The Doctor clone tipped back his hat, staring at the real Doctor.

"Howdy," he said, smirking.

"Why does your clone have a Texan accent?" hissed Amy. The Doctor raised his hand for silence.

The Doctor clone strode forward, spurs jingling against the wooden floor. "I reckon y'all are wondering about our faces," he said. He stopped in front of the cells and stood face to face with the Doctor. "Seems somebody here's a thief."

"Of course I'm a thief," said the Doctor. "That still doesn't explain anything."

The Amy Clone laughed lyrically, striding forward. Her red hair was tied into pigtails, lips painted bright red. "Silly little humans," she said with a sigh, batting her eyelashes. "Looks like we got our signals crossed. Boop!" she reached forward, poking Amy in the nose.

"If you do that again I'll bite it off," Amy growled.

"She will!" offered Rory from his side of the bars. "Trust me."

"Well it sure does seem like y'all landed us all in a pickle," said the Rory clone. He swept his hat off his head, holding it to his chest. "Now it sure is a shame 'bout what we're gonna have to do to you."

"Oh? And what's that," said the Doctor.

"Kill you. Of course." The Luna clone stepped forward, smiling viciously. All four of the clones were wearing belts with holstered pistols. As if on cue they all removed their guns, pointing them at their doubles. The drunk shot up suddenly, eyes flashing bright red.

"Oh no you don't," he said, and pointed a wand at the clone's face. There was bright flash and the clone's face exploded, revealing a massive amount of wiring behind its fleshy face.

"It's a robot?" shrieked Amy. But there was no time to respond. She and the others ducked as the three remaining clones shot bright red lasers at their counterparts.

"Hurry up!" the drunk shouted, moving close to the bars. The lock clicked underneath his hand, and after doing the same for the girls the four of them managed to escape, accompanied by him. The three remaining clones didn't pursue them and they fled down the street until they found a quiet place to talk.

"Are they those plastic…plastene…things?" said Amy. The Doctor shook his head.

"They're Shades," said Luna. "Magical beings that inhabit mechanical bodies. Hogwarts got them sometimes-they'd get in the suits of armor and my transfiguration professor would have to get them out."

"They're…magic?" said Amy, raising her eyebrows.

"Sure are," said the seemingly drunk man. The others all turned, as if they'd forgotten that he was there. Now it was obvious that he wasn't as innocuous as he had at first seemed. He was massively tall, with a thick gray beard and deep-set black eyes. "They can change their appearance too. They shapeshifted into the four of you a couple of days ago. Slightly psychic-they saw you coming."

"And who are you?" said Luna.

"Phineas Wildwood," said the man, standing upright. "Straight off the boat from England…so to speak. I've been chasing these four for months."

"Phineas Wildwood?" said Luna, sounding somewhat more lucid than she usually did. She blinked a couple of times, and then shrugged. "Okay."

The Doctor was watching her curiously but said nothing. Instead, he turned his focus on Phineas. "I do have one question. Magic and technology don't mix, and that is definitely an assemblage of alien technology. You…you do know about aliens don't you?"

"Beings from the stars?" said Phineas, looking at the blue sky and squinting. "Aye, perhaps. But whatever those things latched onto, it's magic running them now. They'd fall apart if it weren't for the magic, I've blasted those things a thousand times."

"So…how do we stop them?" said Amy.

"Well, only a witch or a wizard has a chance of destroying those things," said Phineas.

The Doctor blinked, and to his credit smiled. "So you're telling me I'm helpless against them?" he said. "That…well, that's actually kind of brilliant," he said with a barking laugh.

"I'm a witch," said Luna. "And I know the enchantment for banishing a shade."

Phineas shook his head slowly. "I don't know," he said. "Like I told you, those things are a lot different than your normal shade. It picks up everything…faces, days, times, people, places…ever since we landed in this hole they've started speaking like the locals," he said, wincing.

"So we've got to find a way to stay one step ahead of them," said the Doctor. "You know, I might be able to help out after all."

The clones walked into the Saloon and everything fell silent. The Doctor, Amy and Luna clones stepped up to the bar, glaring menacingly at the bartender. The Rory clone stepped up after them. His face was still partially destroyed from the blast he'd received from the old wizard. Grabbing a glass of whiskey that another patron left behind as he fled, he took a long swig. The liquid seeped through his lips and rolled down what was left of his chin.

"That's absolutely disgusting," said the Amy clone, rolling her eyes.

"I'm tired of the both of you," growled the Doctor clone.

"Yeah? And who's the one who almost got one of us killed back there?" said the Luna clone. She leaned back against the bar, watching as the room cleared out.

"How could I have known there were magicians present?" growled the Doctor clone.

"Isn't that your job, darlin'?" she said, and reaching out she placed a palm alongside his face, slapping him gently. He jerked back, glaring at her.

"Now, children," said the Rory clone. His voice was hollow and wheezy, and the others turned to look at his metallic face. "It's just…just one minor flaw in our plan. As soon as we get the energy we can leave. I can rebuild my face."

"The perfect source of energy is somewhere in this town," the Doctor clone confirmed after a moment, returning his gaze to the wood of the bar. "I can sense it. It's just as I foretold."

"Then we must keep looking," said the Luna clone severely. She looked at the bartender, staring directly into his frightened eyes. "And if we have to kill every human in town to find it, that's what we'll do." So saying she lifted the gun from her belt and pointed it directly between the old man's eyes, smiling viciously. "Bang."

"So, how is this going to work?" said Amy.

"All right. Luna and Mr. Wildwood are our soldiers, so to speak. But to be able to do anything we need to disable them, hold them down in one place…"

"Destroy their bodies, keep them from working," said Luna slowly, coming to an understanding of the situation.

"Exactly. Back at the prison, when Wildwood blew up Rory's face…sorry, Rory…I managed to hang on to a sample of the Shade's body. If I can get this analyzed then maybe, just maybe, I can pinpoint what kind of alien technology they picked up for their little metal suits. And then…"

"Then you can figure out how to stop them. I get it," said Amy, clapping her hands excitedly.

"I also had an idea. The way that Luna made her wand…well, that's something totally new. But I wonder if you can't store magical energy in a mechanical object. Spells, for example."

"You mean, so we wouldn't have to walk into this unarmed?" said Amy.

"Well, that," said Luna, "And you could prepare the spell beforehand so the effect was more…instantaneous. It's not a very common form of magic…a lot of wizards don't think it's possible," she said.

"It sure as hell is possible," said Phineas gruffly. "School stopped teaching that sort of thing under pressure of the Ministry. Didn't want to give any power to the muggles, and rightly so…no offense, madam," he said, tipping his hat.

"What does that mean anyway?" asked Rory, frowning. "Muggle, I mean."

"Non-magical people," said Luna.

"Huh. You have a word for us," said Amy thoughtfully. "We really are kind of freaks to you, in a way, aren't we?" she said.

"I'm a freak to people like me," said Luna mildly.

The Doctor appeared a little surprised by that statement. He looked at Luna for a long moment, smiling. "Well, that's all right then. As far as Time Lords go I'm positively a nightmare."

"I bit a psychiatrist!" said Amy enthusiastically.

"Yeah, because of him," said Rory, gesturing at the Doctor.

"Enough chattering. You're making my head hurt," said Phineas. "

"He's right. Not about the head hurting stuff, but we need to get moving. I'm heading back to the TARDIS. Luna, Amy, Rory, why don't you go with our friend Phineas back to the jail? I'll meet you as soon as I get the results of the tests."

Without so much as waiting for a response from the others the Doctor had fled back toward the TARDIS. Luna, Rory, and Amy raced back after Phineas toward the jail. "Hold on, it's them!" hissed Amy, grabbing Luna and Rory by the arms and pulling them back behind a low gate as four figures in black stepped out of the Saloon. The Luna clone held a gun aloft in the air, and to the real Luna's horror she could see that it was still smoking.

Witches and wizards knew little about the muggle world, apart from those like Harry who had grown up amongst them. But of the few things that had entered the consciousness of magical people guns were one of the most profound. It was one of the most dangerous things that muggles had ever created-in some ways more dangerous than a magic wand, because it took no skill, training or strength of mind to use one. Just a finger on a trigger.

The four clones fell in line and took off down the street. Luna waited until they were out of sight and then darted into the Saloon, quickly finding the old man laying behind the counter.

There was no hope for him. Had it been a regular muggle bullet then perhaps she may have found a way to save him with her magic, but the guns were the same laser weapons that had been used earlier in the jail. A tremendous hole had been ripped in the old man's chest. He was already dead.

"Oh my God…" Amy whispered, coming in behind Luna and spotting the man.

"There's nothing I can do," said Luna. She stood up, staring down at him for a moment longer. "I'm sorry," she added, almost to herself, and turned around. "I can't just let them go around killing people. Phineas, you don't need me to make the weapons for the Doctor, Amy and Rory. I'm going to go after them."

"Wait!" shouted Amy, but it was too late. Luna was running out of the Saloon and down the street after the clones. "What does she think she's going to do?" she added in exasperation, tugging at her hair.

Luna found the clones at the end of the street, and ducking behind a half-dozen barrels she watched them as they moved into the empty sand and, to her utter amazement, disappeared.

To Luna it was a house protected by Unbreakable Oath-to the Doctor and anybody who had traveled with him, the house was protected by a Perception filter. Either way, it wasn't until several moments later, when they walked back out of the house, that Luna was able to focus her attention on the spot and perceive the small ramshackle hut beyond.

Keeping her eye on the hut for fear of losing it, and her ears open for signs that the clones were returning, Luna darted across the barren landscape. "Alohomora!" she whispered, wand pointed at the door. There was an audible click and she yanked it open, sliding inside as smoothly as she could.

She took a deep breath and turned around. What she saw was surprising, even for her. The battered remains of an alien laboratory surrounded her. Even without knowing much about muggles it was obvious to Luna that this was certainly not the sort of thing that could have existed in the 1800s.

Her wand was still out, and knowing what she had to do she held it at the ready. "Reducto!" she shouted, putting all the force she could into the incantation. An entire wall of the hut was taken out in moments, and a loud, piercing siren began to wail. She repeated the process with the other two walls and then, deciding that she'd done enough, Luna darted out through the hole that she had created just in time to see the four clones running back toward the hut.

"Sorry about that!" she called out playfully.

"GET HER!" shouted her clone self, but it was far too late for any of them to do anything about her. She closed her eyes and focused, and with a loud distinctive crack she hurtled herself through space. When she opened her eyes Amy and Rory were both staring at her in shock while an unconcerned Phineas was working on some project or another in the corner, oblivious to her arrival.

"How…I mean…how…" sputtered Rory.

"Hope I didn't startle you," said Luna, putting her wand back into her pocket. "Is it working, Phineas?" she asked, leaning over to look at what he was doing.

He had four guns, similar to the ones wielded by the clones, laid out in front of him. Three were glimmering faintly with a dull light and he was working on the fourth.

"It's going to work," he said with a nod. He continued on in silence for a few moments, and finally closed the chamber, sighing to himself. "I got those buggers. I finally got them."

"So…what did you do to them?" asked Amy.

"I blew up their house," said Luna. She moved over to the table and picked up one of the guns. It felt strange in her hand, lighter than it should be. "Have you heard from the Doctor yet?"

"Knowing him, he'll burst in any moment with some horrible news that'll make all of this even more dark and dangerous than it already was," said Amy lightly.

And as if on cue there was a sudden pounding at the door and the Doctor burst in, looking bedraggled and far more intense than Luna had ever seen him. "I have it! The technology! And oh, you're never going to believe this," he said.

"They're from earth," said Luna. "From the future."

The Doctor stared at her blankly, with a look of surprise and slight disappoint on his face. "Ah…yes, that's actually right. How…I mean, why…how could you have known that?"

"I saw the year stamped on the flashing light thingy," said Luna.

"Ah." He stared at her for a long moment. "Do you mind if I continue with my epiphany here?" he said mildly after a moment. "This really is my favorite part."

"Of course," said Luna, smiling gently at him.

"Right. So here's what had to have happened. Earth in the future creates the first of what will be a long series of failures in their attempts at time travel. They don't send humans along-too dangerous-so they send robot analogues with the machines to collect information. Of course, the robots are all utterly destroyed. But your 'magical' beings find the wreckage of one of these ships…"

"I get it!" said Amy suddenly, clapping her hands in excitement. "And I'll bet that they got all their information on the past from television and old films. That must be why they talk like they're in a bad western."

"Good point," said the Doctor. "And I think I understand why they're slightly psychic, too. A little bit of residual time energy must have gotten mixed into the system. They're seeing multiple points in the time stream."

"All very fascinating," said Phineas, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "But the girl's little trick is only going to hold them for so long. It's time to get moving." He stood up, holstering one of the guns.

Luna, Rory and Amy followed suit. Only the Doctor was left unarmed, but when Amy gestured toward him with the gun he shook his head, showing her the screwdriver. "This is all I need," he said confidently.

A hot Texas breeze blew past them as they stepped out onto the street. Four black figures appeared at the end of the street and both parties continued forward until they were standing several paces apart from one another.

"Well, well, what have we got here?" said the Doctor clone. He put his hand to his hat, staring at the Doctor from under its brim. "Looks like y'all got together a posse. Y'all gonna run us out of town?" he said.

"No. We're going to destroy you," he said, straightening his bowtie casually.

"I'd like to see y'all try," giggled the Amy clone.

"My GOD she is annoying!" said Amy in exasperation.

"Now, now, no need to be rude," said the Luna clone sweetly.

Luna said nothing, only staring at the group of four with wide blue eyes.

"It's time to put you to rest, Shades," said Phineas, stepping forward. He held his gun in one hand and raised it to chest level with the Doctor clone. But before he could squeeze the trigger the Luna clone had lifted her own gun. There wasn't even time to react.

One moment Phineas was standing there, openly defying the creatures. The next he was laying on the ground as if in a perfect imitation of the man in the Saloon, a perfect hole punched out of his chest.

"No…" gasped the Doctor. Luna closed her eyes for a long moment, taking a deep breath, while Amy and Rory stared in shock.

"It's time to end this," said the Doctor clone. And there it was.

They were numbered four to four, each standing across from their double, hands on their guns. The town was emptied after the residents' long struggle with the four Shades, so there was nobody to watch the showdown.

Silence fell. Nobody spoke, or even moved, as they waited for the chips to fall. Afterward nobody would remember who had shot first, except that all were certain it had been one of the Shades, but one moment they all stood beneath the umbrella of perfect tension and then the next four bodies laid strewn out on the streets, staring absently up at the bright blue sky, and the Doctor knelt down to examine them, nodding when he was certain that they were totally disabled.

Luna and Amy both moved to Phineas and knelt at either side of him. He was already dead. "Phineas Wildwood, who disappeared to America and never returned," said Luna. "He was my great-great grandfather…or great-great-great, I'm not exactly certain," she said.

"What? Are you kidding me?" said Amy, looking up at her.

"No. I guess we were meant to meet like this. Or maybe it was just serendipitous," she said, reaching out gently to touch his face. "Anyway, I heard about him when I was growing up. Everybody thought that he'd run away, except for his family. They knew better than that. His daughter married Bertram Lovegood. That's also when most people began to think my family was totally mad," said Luna with a soft laugh. She leaned over, planting a soft kiss on his forehead.

"So she knew this entire time that he was her grandfather," said Amy, standing and moving close to the Doctor. "She even knew that he was probably going to die out here, and didn't try to save him."

"Maybe she did, in her own way," said the Doctor, looking in the direction of the destroyed craft that had carried the Shades from wherever they'd come from. "Or maybe she just sees more than we can imagine.

Phineas Wildwood was buried in the Texas with one family member, several generations removed, in attendance. When that was done Luna left his graveside and went off into the brush, staring across the sand. The Doctor came up to her side, placing one hand on her shoulder. "I'm definitely glad I decided to keep you," he said. "Come on, Luna. There's a universe to see."

"One moment," she said, putting her hand up to cover his when he attempted to steer her away. "I just wanted to see something."

"What? What is it?" he asked, looking in curiosity down at her face.

Luna moved her gaze from the horizon to stare up at him for just a moment. "A jackalope," she said in all seriousness.

"Ah. Right. A…what?"

"A jackalope. I heard that they have them in Texas," she said. The Doctor shook his head, attempting to stifle a laugh and failing to do so.

"I'm sorry, Luna, but they're just not…"

His voice trailed off. A smallish figure could be seen loping towards them from the distance. It bounded across the sand as it began to move closer, and it paused finally when it was several feet from the pair. It glanced up at Luna, blinking its small black eyes. It's antlers trembled slightly for a moment, and then with no provocation it ran very quickly away.

Luna smiled. "All right. I'm ready to go." And with that she walked off behind Amy and Rory, leaving the Doctor to stare at her in stunned amazement. Then, laughing ecstatically, he joined the group as they all made their way back to a little blue box.


	3. Here There Be Dragons

**A Doc, A Looney and a Box**

**Here There Be Dragons**

It was the largest and most beautiful beach in the universe. It stretched across the entire equator of the planet, a glittering white band short enough in width that the best of locations offered a view of the ocean on either side. It had been artificially created decades before, when the ocean planet was first discovered by humans, and in that time had become the most famous resort location in the universe.

"I am SO ready for a holiday!" said Amy exuberantly, stepping out onto the sand. Rory stepped out of the TARDIS after her, holding several bags.

"It ought to be nice not getting maimed, attacked or otherwise put in some life-threatening situation for once," said Rory, almost hopefully, as he looked out at the peaceful landscape surrounding them. A tall glass building rose up several stories across from them.

"All right, you…you crazy kids," said the Doctor from the doorway of the TARDIS. "Here's your reservation, room 229. We'll be back in three days so try not to get into any trouble while we're gone." He started to turn away and paused, frowning as he rummaged through his jacket. He produced a small white tube and tossed it at Amy. "Sunblock," he offered helpfully.

"Oh, thanks, but I was hoping to get a bit of tan."

"You'd get it all right. The atmosphere is fifty percent of what you're used to on earth. Third degree burns, nasty business."

"Ah. Sunblock it is. SPF 500," she said, reading off the bottle. "Fantastic."

They said their goodbyes, Luna waving at the couple from the TARDIS before the doors closed and she was left alone inside with the Doctor.

"So what do you say? Fancy an adventure while those two are off on holiday?" said the Doctor, looking hopefully at the control panel for the TARDIS.

"I quite like adventures," said Luna, and that seemed to be enough to settle the Doctor's mind. He ran to the center of the machine, flipping buttons and pushing levers.

"Where to, then? Past, future…anywhere you like really. Except Raxicoricofallipatorious…I'd really rather not go there. And definitely not Clom." He was in the middle of speaking when all of a sudden the phone that sat at the center of the console began to ring. He eyed it for a long moment, then turned to Luna. "Mind if I take this?"

Luna shrugged, and with that the Doctor flipped it off its hook and caught it, holding it to his ear. "Strange," muttered Luna. She had never seen a telephone before, and even though she knew that some of her friends subscribed to such muggle conventions she had never really seen the need to.

The Doctor listened for a long moment, frowned, then put his hand over the phone and glanced at Luna. "Hold on, let me put this on speaker," he said, holding the Sonic Screwdriver up to it.

"…request your assistance, New Doctor," came a soothing voice. "The Ood-Sphere is greatly in need of aid." There was a long pause, and then the voice continued. "The Ood are in danger. We request your assistance, New Doctor. The Ood-Sphere is greatly in need of aid." After another long pause the message repeated itself again. After listening to it a couple more times the Doctor put the phone back on the hook.

"Who are the Ood?" asked Luna, moving out of the Doctor's way.

"Old friends," said the Doctor, seeming a little distracted. "Last time I heard from them…well, let's just say it was a life-changing experience," he said, shooting her a small glance as he readied the TARDIS for take-off. "Good thing you have that scarf. You're going to need it."

There was the familiar whirring, and after a moment of jarring impact they were off. The Doctor was unusually silent on this trip, seeming thoughtful, and Luna took it as an opportunity to pay attention to the inner workings of the TARDIS for the first time. She watched as the Doctor pressed buttons and pulled levers, quickly losing track as he whirred around the console in a flurry of activity.

The sound echoed once more through the ship as they landed. The Doctor marched to the doors and threw them open. A blast of frigid air poured through the doors, carrying thick globs of powder white snow in with it. "Cold out there. As always," said the Doctor, and straightening his jacket he marched out into the snow.

Luna followed him, looking out across the landscape. Tall buildings that seemed to be made of ice rose up from the earth, stretching like mountains as far as could be seen. "They certainly have advanced," said the Doctor, squinting off into the distance. He paused after a moment, glancing down at Luna. "Aren't you cold?" he asked.

"Yes," said Luna, though with little concern. The Doctor stared at her for a long moment before shrugging.

"All right, so I don't know exactly what's going on here but the Ood said that this planet is in danger. Stick close to me and do everything I say."

"But what if what you say is wrong?" asked Luna, glancing up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

The Doctor furrowed his brows. "You know, none of my companions have ever asked me that before," he said. "Not that I can remember."

"What?" said Luna. "Do you mean you're never wrong?"

"Oh, of course I am," said the Doctor. "I'm just bloody good at making people think that I'm right. Come on."

He began to walk, taking the smoothest path down the hill that they had landed on, with Luna following along in his wake. About halfway down the Doctor realized that she had stopped and turned, seeing her standing in place and staring off into the distance. "I can hear singing," she said gently.

The Doctor stared at her in surprise, taking a few steps back in her direction. "You can hear it?" he asked.

Nodding gently, Luna continued to listen. "They're in mourning, I think," she said.

Closing his eyes, the Doctor chuckled softly. He reached his hand out to Luna. "Yeah. Something not so nice has happened here, and I want to find out what it was," he said. Taking his hand, Luna continued after him down the hill and they moved in toward the small city.

It was at the edge of the city that the first of the Ood appeared. Luna stared in mild surprise at the alien head resting on what otherwise seemed to be a humanoid body. In one hand it held a brain which dangled from a long cord and attached to the creatures squid-like head. It blinked its eyes as it turned its attention to them. "New Doctor, we once again rejoice at your arrival," said the Ood.

"Ah, wish I could say the same," said the Doctor, in as cavalier a manner as he could. "Now, what seems to be the problem."

"The beast roams freely across our city," said the Ood. "There has been much pain and suffering in his wake."

"The beast?" said the Doctor, making a face. "Well that sounds unpleasant and possibly deadly."

"It sounds like fun," said Luna, smiling.

"My kind of girl," said the Doctor, winking at her. "Now, Mr. Ood, where can we find this beast of yours?"

"This way, sir," said the Ood, and with a slight bow he turned and began to lead the way into the towering city of ice.

"So…a brief history of the Ood," said the Doctor, glancing over at Luna as they made their way through empty streets. "A long while ago, their race was found on this planet. Perfect slave race-at least that's what the humans thought. They enslaved their consciousness and turned them into mindless drones."

"Sort of like house elves," said Luna thoughtfully. "Except for the squishy brains in their hands thing."

"Ah…ahem," said the Doctor, glancing up at their Ood guide to see if he had noticed what she said. He didn't appear to be paying attention, and after a few moments the Doctor continued.

"Well, anyway, I ended up here with a friend and we found out what the humans were up to. Making a big business off the Ood, but also making a big mess. My friend and I freed them and…well…here we are. A few centuries after the last time I was here, I'd wager to guess," he said, glancing up at the towers.

"So you saved them," said Luna. "That's…kind of lovely," she said. "Is that what you do, Doctor? Go around saving people?"

"Ah…yes. Well, I try to anyway," he said.

At the heart of the city, where the Doctor knew the consciousness of the Ood to be kept, their guide stopped. "I'm afraid I can lead you no further," he said. "Nobody may enter the Great Chamber. The bodies of the dead are in the hall. I must remain here and watch," he said, and with a parting bow he took his place in front of the large door which the Doctor saw had been welded shut.

Recognizing what had at one time been a warehouse as the hall the Ood indicated, the Doctor gave him a parting nod and, taking Luna by the arm, went off in that direction.

The first thing that struck the pair, as they entered the makeshift burial chamber, was the scent of charred flesh. It struck the both of them at the same time, adding a newfound sense of tension to the situation.

The bodies were laid out, side by side, through the center of the room. The Doctor crouched next to the nearest, reaching out with his Sonic Screwdriver to examine the body. It had been burnt almost beyond recognition. Shocked, Luna knelt beside it as the Doctor moved along to examine the others.

The only thing that seemed to remain the same were its eyes. Luna reached out and, with a gentle touch, placed her fingers on the creatures face. "What could have done this?" she asked in mingled horror and surprise.

"I have no idea. There are no natural predators on this planet. That's why the Ood are the way they are. Look," he said, pointing to the exposed brain of a body that had been less charred than the others. "Brains outside their bodies. Until now humans have been the only things they've had to worry about."

"Then is it humans doing this?" asked Luna.

The Doctor paused, looking thoughtful. "I don't know yet. But whoever did this, they're going to pay."

Luna sat still as the Doctor continued to examine the corpses, listening to the song of the Ood as they mourned their fallen brethren. She was suddenly taken back to a morning several nights before, when she had knelt on the floor of the great hall to watch the bodies of her fallen allies as they were laid out to rest.

There had been no singing, but she knew without doubt that if their had it would have sounded like the subconscious sound that now floated through her mind. Hermione had been there, and Ron, and all the others as Harry has walked amongst the dead paying his respects, and offering comfort to the living.

That had been the moment she had grown up. It had never quite seemed, before then, that there had been a real price to pay in war. The others that had died, before then, had been distant to her. But remembering a moment of kindness offered her by Fred Weasley, or a kind smile by Tonks, or the evening that Remus Lupin had pulled her aside and told her that it wasn't so bad, being different…all these things had changed her.

In a strange way, Luna realized that for the Ood, who had never before known a real predator, they were facing a similar awakening.

"Luna? Luna, are you all right?"

She glanced up to find the Doctor staring down at her in concern. "I was just thinking," she said, standing.

"I can't find anything here," said the Doctor. "And we're not going to get a chance to talk to any of the Ood. Not while they're like this," he said, referring to the sadness of their song. "It looks like we're going to have to follow the trail of the Beast."

"Do you have any ideas?" said Luna as she followed him back out into the whiteness of the world outside.

"Not really," said the Doctor. He was poking around the side of the building. "Tell me if you see a snowmobile or something," he said, looking around for a vehicle. "We're never going to be able to get up into that ridge on foot."

Luna glanced around, picking up something and extending it for the Doctor to see. "How about this?" she said.

The Doctor stared down at what she was holding, then looked up at her. "That's a broom," he said.

"Well, of course it is," said Luna. "And that is a mop. I should be able to enchant the both of them to fly for long enough to get us there and back."

"You mean you lot actually fly on broomsticks?" said the Doctor, suppressing a laugh. "Brilliant!"

Luna worked her magic on the objects as quickly as she could, and within fifteen minutes they were both mounted and zipping up the ridge, the Doctor dipping and swerving as he learned to control the broom. "That way!" shouted the Doctor, attempting not to fall as he pointed toward a spot on the horizon. A thin plume of smoke was rising up from the earth, and turning in that direction Luna and the Doctor zipped off.

They dismounted just far away enough that they couldn't be seen and, hiding behind a rift of snow, watched the spot where the smoke was coming from. "It's a campfire," whispered the Doctor, and Luna nodded. It wasn't he Ood, that much was obvious.

"Humans," said Luna, as a band of five people emerged from a small lean-to that was camouflaged against the white. There were three men and two women, all in robes of black.

"The fire's gone out," said one of the men, the eldest of the group and, it seemed, their leader. One of the women knelt down on the ground and, pulling out a wand, whispered something that caused the dwindling flames to leap back to life.

"A witch?" said the Doctor in surprise.

Luna watched as the travelers huddled together in deep conversation. There was something sallow and pale about them, as if they were living ghosts. "I don't like the way they feel," she said quietly.

"The Ood said something about a beast, though. How…"

The Doctor stopped as a load roar rumbled through the earth and the air, making the world itself tremble. The five people stopped and glanced up. The leader of the group gestured with his hand toward the east and the two other men sprang up, heading quickly off in the direction that had been indicated. "Come on," said the Doctor, and taking the mop in hand he began to follow them. Luna paused a moment longer to look at the travelers at their fire, and then she followed.

Using a high bank of snow as cover, Luna and the Doctor moved quickly and quietly after the three men who had rushed off. They finally caught up with them as they approached a ridge and the men disappeared into the mouth of what appeared to be a very large cave. "Do we go in?" asked Luna mildly, glancing up at him.

"Going in there would be madness…utter insanity," said the Doctor.

"So, yes then?" said Luna. The Doctor paused for a long moment, then grinned at her.

"Oh, all right, you've convinced me. Let's go." The pair darted across the frozen plain and into the mouth of the cave, with Luna quickly holding her wand up for light. Not too far into the cave the path forked in two directions.

"Which way…" started Luna, but the Doctor held up his hand, leaning forward to listen down first one cavern and then the other. After a moment of indecision he gestured for Luna to follow him down the path to the right, and with careful footsteps they made their way over the rocky floor.

A little ways in there came another enormous roar, loud enough to shake free a shower of pebbles from the stone tunnel. "We're very close." said the Doctor. They could hear several loud shouts and Luna and the Doctor began to run, heedless of the noise their footfall made on the stone.

Finally they left the tunnel, as it emerged into a wide underground crypt. But this wasn't what surprised them. At the center of this chamber, struggling desperately against its bonds, was a blue and silver dragon. Fire burst from its jaws as it fought against two of the wizards as they attempted to secure one of its forelegs, which Luna could see had broken free.

"Is that a bloody dragon?" asked the Doctor. "I mean, it looks like a dragon…a human's idea of a dragon, not an alien that happens to look like a dragon or…that's a bloody dragon, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Luna. "What, you thought dragons weren't real?"

"I…well of course, I didn't think dragons were real! Dragons are stories invented by humans back in the day, to explain away alien invasion."

"Hmph," sniffed Luna delicately, turning her attention back to the dragon as it roared again. "Well, this one is very much real, and in pain. Those men must be poachers. See?" Luna gestured towards something that was glittering beneath the dragon. "They're after her eggs. That's why she's so angry."

"Ah. Yes," said the Doctor, a look of discomfort coming over his face. It was obvious that he wasn't used to being the one who was being told what was going on. He was further made uncomfortable when Luna signaled for him to hide with he behind a large outcropping of rock, watching the poachers as they secured the chain and administered what Luna could only assumed was a sedative to the beast.

After a few moments the dragon seemed to settle, although it was still eyeing the poachers warily. "Come on!" yelled the wizard in charging, gesturing toward the mouth of the cave. "We'll return in an hour and make sure she's locked down. We better make sure the camp is safe."

The Doctor and Luna waited until the wizards were well gone before they sprang up from behind the rock. "Well, what do we do now?' said Luna, looking up at the dragon. "We can't just leave her there. They're stealing her babies."

"Yes. But we can't free her. All those Ood…"

"Oh. Right," said Luna, suddenly appearing concerned. "Well, we can't just do nothing."

"Nope, that's the one thing we can't do," said the Doctor.

"All right then. I think I might have an idea."

With the Doctor's help, Luna managed to secure the area. "All right," she said, once she was certain that nobody was going to interrupt them. "I'm performing the Fidelius Charm. You and I are going to be the secret keepers. I'm going to put a spell on this cave so only we can see it or enter it."

"You're going to create a perception filter," said the Doctor, looking surprisingly interested. "Do you mind if I see how you do it?"

Luna nodded slightly, though her concentration seemed to have turned elsewhere. Luna extended her wand, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. With several quick movements, she flicked her wand, and then reaching out she took the Doctor's hand. "Fidelius dragon and cave," she whispered, then repeated the phrase over and over again in a sort of singsong chant.

The Doctor felt the knowledge begin to wind itself tight deep inside his mind, tighter and tighter until it felt as if it were embedded deep within his soul. All of a sudden he realized that Luna had finished and, though still holding him by the hand, was staring up at him with her wide blue eyes.

"That's quite different than I expected," he said, raising his eyebrows. "Luna, you really are brilliant."

He paused, feeling strange about making this statement. He thought briefly of the girl he couldn't remember, the girl known as Hermione Granger. Then he shook his head.

"All right. We better hunt down those wizards and see what they're after," said the Doctor, and Luna nodded in assent.

They took off back down the mountainside, following the tracks of the wizards, until they caught up with them at their camp. "Let's just stick back here and be sneaky," said the Doctor, and taking hold of Luna he pulled her close to him and they ducked down so they wouldn't be seen.

"Did you secure it?" said one of the witches, staring up at the returning wizards expectantly.

"Yeah. It won't be going anywhere for then next little while."

"Make sure it doesn't. We'll never be able to afford the Chieftan's price if those eggs don't hatch."

"I don't see why we don't just hatch the eggs ourselves and slaughter the mother," said one of the witches agitatedly. She was holding her wand stiffly in her fingers, staring off into the snow absently.

"If we do that, we lose future profits. Besides, we were ordered to keep her alive, at least until the Chieftan gets his hands on her heart."

"Her heart?" whispered the Doctor, glancing over at Luna. Again he felt a prickle of unease when Luna, somewhat distractedly, nodded at him as if it were obvious what was going on.

"The sinews in a dragon's heart are very powerful magic ingredients," said Luna. "Used quite often in wandmaking."

"Ah, makes sense…it's like the core of your wand, the one you made in the TARDIS."

Luna nodded. "There aren't really many cores that actually work. The three most common are Phoenix feather, Dragon Heartstring and Unicorn hairs."

"Unicorn?" said the Doctor.

"Mm. It's like a pointy horse."

"I know what a unicorn is, Luna," said the Doctor, although there was a look of consternation on his face. He watched the group as they descended into an argument. "If they're trading it on the black market that means that there aren't many left."

"Well, there aren't that many dragons and unicorns in outer space I'd expect, and Phoenix's were always rare," said Luna. "And it's almost impossible for a witch or wizard to do magic without a wand. I would imagine that having a wand is a rare thing for these people. I mean look how careful they are with theirs," she added.

The Doctor looked again. He had noticed how possessively they held on to their wands and with Luna's explanation now understood why. "The loss of power is a frightening and dangerous thing. Enough so that they don't mind the loss of life of a few hundred Ood. Now what I wonder is who is this Chieftain, and what he's paying them for this job. Because I can't imagine any amount of money that would make this a job worth doing."

They continued to watch the band for a little while. Luna felt a prickle of unease when the wizards from earlier broke off to go in search of the dragon. "They may be a little upset when they realize they can't find her," said Luna.

"Hmm. Probably."

This was of course an understatement. Before thirty minutes had passed the wizards were roaring over the snowy banks, announcing the treachery. "I just realized a slight problem," said the Doctor as chaos broke out at the encampment.

"What's that?" said Luna.

"We're not exactly well-hidden if somebody's looking for eavesdroppers."

The Doctor and Luna both froze and turned to look at one another. All of a sudden there was a loud shout. "RUN!" shouted the Doctor.

"No, silly, fly!" said Luna, and tossing the mop at the Doctor she jumped onto her broom. As she had predicted, her enchantments had barely been enough to get them up the ridge, and they barely made it back to the warehouses before the magic gave out completely.

"They won't come into town with the Ood here," said the Doctor. "Believe it or not, they can be quite dangerous when pushed into it."

"That doesn't mean they'll just give up," said Luna. "And there's one more thing."

"What's that?"

"The dragon is eventually going to get loose of her bonds. And right now, you and I are the only people that can see her. She could come roaring down here right now and we'd be the only ones who could see her."

"Ah. That does make this situation a bit sticky." He went silent for a moment. "They're going to be watching for us to make our way out of here for a while."

"Mmm," said Luna thoughtfully. "You know, we really should find someplace to fit her. Do you think you could get a dragon into the TARDIS?"

The Doctor stared at her mutely, for a very long moment. "She's bigger on the inside, but not that much bigger," he said. "Anyway, how would we fit he through the doors?"

"Hmm," said Luna. "I could always transfigure her. Change her into something else," she said, when the Doctor continued to stare.

"Like what?" he said.

"I don't know. A dog, perhaps."

"Ah. The world's nastiest, most fire-breathing pomeranian. That sounds like a perfect plan."

"I could make her a pug," said Luna. All of a sudden she trailed off. The pair had been so involved in their conversation they hadn't seen or heard the wizards come around the long way. They now had their wands trained on Luna and the Doctor and were staring at them angrily.

"All right, witch, your game is up. Tell me, just what did the Chieftan think to achieve by sending you lot out here?"

"We don't work for anybody," said the Doctor. His hands had flung up when the wizards pointed their wands at him. Luna glanced over and, realizing that she should probably do the same, slowly put her hands into the air. "We're what you could call free agents."

"We're members of a an organization called the S.P.C.D." said Luna.

"S.P.C.D.?" whispered the Doctor.

"Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to dragons."

"Ah, yes…quite a good organization," said the Doctor. "Lot of…you know, lot of burning and things but overall quite nice…"

"Shut it!" said the head wizard. "Did you or did you not use a Secret Keeping charm on the cave?"

"I did," said Luna.

"Well then," said one of the witches who was with the group. "Tell us why we shouldn't kill you know?"

"Because the secret would be lost forever," said Luna with a small shrug. The Doctor was surprised by her nonchalance in this situation. Even he was beginning to worry a little bit and he rarely worried.

Well, all right, that wasn't quite true, he worried quite a bit actually, but didn't he usually come out all right in the end?

The wizard narrowed his eyes. "Well, you're our prisoner anyway. Hand over your wands."

Luna sighed deeply, as if she were being greatly inconvenienced, then pulled out a long piece of stick from her coat and hand it over. The man eyed it curiously, giving it a faint swish. "This isn't any wand," he said.

"It is too. See? The only other thing I've got is this toothbrush." She pulled out her Sonic Wand. The wizard furrowed his brow and leaned forward, glancing at it strangely.

"Toothbrush?" he said.

"He's got one too," said Luna.

"Ah," said the Doctor, and thought to himself clever girl. He pulled his Sonic Screwdriver out of his coat pocket, displaying it proudly. "Toothbrush," he said, "Don't leave home without it. You never know when you're going to be fighting gingivitus."

Luna looked over at him. "Shall we fight gingivitus now?" she said.

"Best time for it," said the Doctor.

"Reducto!" cried Luna. The nearest three wizards were blown out of her way, and on the Doctor's side the high-pitched keening of his Screwdriver had distracted the remainder of the group. Taking the path that Luna had cleared they broke into a run. "Where are we going?" she said as they made their way quickly up the path.

"Don't you know?" said the Doctor. "You seem the be the one in charge here."

"Me?" said Luna, eyes widening in astonishment. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Ever since we got here!" the Doctor shouted. "Every step of the way, it's like you know everything! Little miss know-it-all!"

"What? You sound mad," said Luna. She turned so that she was somewhat running sideways.

"I'm…not…mad…" the Doctor huffed. Glancing around, he found a small outcropping of rocks and pulled Luna behind it. "It's just that…well…"

"What is it?"

"It's just weird, not being in charge. I don't really like it," he said sullenly. Luna blinked owlishly at him, then cocked her head to the side.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"No, I'm sorry. I mean, I only just met you and all. You can't help it if you're…you know…"

"Smart?" said Luna.

"I was going to say, 'a witch'," said the Doctor. "Right then." He straightened his jacket, looking back down the path. They hadn't been followed, and the fact that they hadn't was beginning to make him a little nervous. "Now, about that dragon in the TARDIS idea," said the Doctor. "Think you can pull it off?" he said.

"I'm sure I can," said Luna confidently.

"All right then," said the Doctor. "Let's get back to the TARDIS then. We can fly her up to the dragon, then get her aboard and find some safe place to keep her."

Luna nodded. They weren't now very far from the main city that housed the Ood. The TARDIS was just where they left it, and with more than a small amount of thanks they boarded it and, with the familiar grating hum of the machine, had disappeared up the ridge and to the dragon's cave.

"Just stand back," said Luna. The Doctor obliged her, and with heavy concentration she raised her wand and began to whisper to herself. Glimmering lights surrounded the beast, and it slowly began to shrink, the raised ridges smoothing themselves out and becoming coated in a fine layer of hair. Finally it stopped shrinking, and with a muffled bark began to run towards them, launching itself at the Doctor and licking him on the cheek.

"You really turned her into a pug," said the Doctor. He glanced down at her in shock.

"I think we should call her Scaley. Or Flamey. Or…I don't know. Can you think of anything dragoney?"

"How about puff?" he said in bemusement.

"I like Puff," said Luna. She picked the dog up, giving her what turned out to be a very squishy hug. "You get the eggs," she called out.

They loaded everything up onto the TARDIS, and then the Doctor slammed the doors closed. "All right. Now, just one last thing to do," he said.

Luna nodded. "We need to get those wizards off this planet," she said. "For good."

* * *

The TARDIS landed at the center of the camp. The wizards stared at it in awe before the doors flung open and Luna stepped out. She put her hands up as their pointed their wands at her.

"Just wait a minute," she said. "Put those down. I have something very important to tell you. I'm sure that all of you know about Hogwarts. About the Second Great Wizarding War. Well, you should all know that I am a time traveler, and I was there."

She took a step forward, hand now on the pocket that held her wand. "I watched as Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord. I fought against the Death Eaters, and afterward I spent every waking minute of my life hunting them down. And now, I'm here with the authority of the Third Golden Wizengamot. My name is Luna Lovegood. And you-" she took out the wand, pointing them at the wizards, "are trespassing. Now, go, and if I see you again there will be hell to pay."

They all exchanged frightened looks. Then, en masse, they all Apparated away.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. "What was that all about?"

"Well, the bit about the Third Golden Wizengamot was rubbish," she said. "But, the way I figure, so long as I don't forget to go and put a little bit in the history books about the horrible, terrible frightening witch, Luna Lovegood, then my name should strike fear in the hearts of all witches and wizards who see me," she said. "Or something like that."

"Hmm. Not a bad tactic," said the Doctor. "I think my speeches are usually a bit better, though," he said.

"Coming from a man in a bow-tie," said Luna with a smirk.

"What, you too? Every companion," he said with a shake of his head.

"We still need to figure out who the chieftain is, eventually," said Luna. "But we better get the eggs somewhere safe. I'm not sure about Puff," she said though. The dog was rubbing itself up against her leg, clawing pathetically. "I think she likes me."

"We are not," said the Doctor, "Not by any means having a dog on the TARDIS."

The TARDIS arrived on the beach of the most beautiful planet in the universe. The doors opened and Amy stepped in. Her skin was a scarlet red.

"Nice tan," said the Doctor.

"Shut it," said Amy.

Rory stepped on after her, and was immediately assaulted by twenty pounds of snorting, barking, pug. "What's this?" he yelped, jumping back.

The Doctor sighed. "Meet Puff," he said. "Our newest companion."


	4. Backwards Day

**A Doc, A Looney, and a Box**

**Author's Note:** Writing, writing, writing! I've been doing so much writing lately, and none of it fan fiction I'm afraid. That's what happens when you decide to try and make a little money off your work. The fun stuff gets put aside for the tedious stuff. I've been writing freelance articles and blogs, here and there, just to make ends meet. But, since I had a little time this morning I thought I'd give this little idea I had a shot. So here you go!

**Backwards Day**

"Luna! Pond! Don't you do this to me!" The Doctor was on his knees, pressing down on Luna's chest as she bled out onto the ground of an alien planet. Rory was doing the same with Amy, tears streaming down his face as he babbled incoherently, a never-ending stream of promises, bargaining with her to stay.

On the ground, Luna stared up at the pale, lavender sky of Dexas 12, struggling to breath as the alien crystals exploded through her lungs and heart, tearing her apart from the inside out. But it was too late. The last thing she thought, as the darkness of death came over her, was that she hadn't meant things to end this way. And then she closed her eyes, her hand reaching out to clutch the wand laying at her side.

And then everything went black.

Twelve Hours Later

"What's he doing?" asked Amy watching as the Doctor scrambled backwards around the TARDIS, pulling gears and shifting levers.

"I don't know. Seems a little strange, doesn't it?"

As Luna spoke the Doctor froze, a bright gleam coming into his eyes. "It got I've!" he exclaimed, throwing one hand into the air and pumping it. And then his face faded and he fell into melancholy pacing, still backwards, as Rory-who had been standing off to the side, an excited look on his face-seemed to fade and backed onto a chair.

"Was that even English?" muttered Amy, crossing her arms over her chest as the Doctor continued to pace.

The Doctor threw is hands in the air. "You for beginning the just is this, course of." He paused. "Backwards traveling you're," the Doctor said, glancing at Luna.

"What's he babbling?" said Amy, narrowing his eyes.

Luna shrugged. Something was prickling at the edge of her thoughts, and she couldn't quite make it out. Finally, she asked, "Amy, how did we get here?"

"Hmm?" Amy turned around.

"I can't remember where I was five minutes ago," said Luna. "Everything feels so strange."

Amy froze. She pushed her hands through her hair, shaking her head gently. "I…no, you're right," she said. "Something's off. All I can remember is landing on this planet, and then it's like…like everything went black."

"Nervous me making you're! Seat a have, Rory." The Doctor said, stopping in the middle of his pacing. Rory stood up, walking backwards toward Amy and hovering near her. "Backward going ones the you're except," He said, then added, "Exactly," waving his hand.

"It's like everything's on rewind," said Amy, her face scrunching up in confusion. "Like we're moving forward and they're in reverse."

"Wait," said Luna. She reached out and took Amy by the arm. "The Doctor said exactly. Before you said that."

"Yeah," said Amy. Then her eyes widened and her mouth gaped open. "Oh my God, they're going backwards?" she gasped.

"I think we're going backwards, actually," said Luna.

"You. Us not," said the Doctor.

"But…but they…" Amy sputtered.

"Them understand really can you?" said Rory, glancing at the Doctor.

The Doctor sighed. Then, face down in concentration, he said haltingly, "Listen. You'll understand everything soon…oops…soon everything. Our time streams are opposite running of each other. All at right wasn't that, oh. I think I've sorted almost gotten it out."

"Oh, well that explains everything," said Luna. She moved back and watched the Doctor paced.

"So they really are running backwards?" said Amy in shock. They watched as Rory and the Doctor moved backwards through the ship, the Doctor thinking.

Then, pausing, he looked up and said, "Do I?"

"Well, obviously he finally figured it out," said Luna. "Remember a couple of minutes ago?"

"Patterns speech the not but words the translate can TARDIS the. Work good."

"The TARDIS can translate the words but not the speech patterns," said Luna, focusing on what the Doctor had said.

"If they're talking backwards how can we understand them?" asked Amy. Then, after a pause, added "Oh."

Rory slapped his palm against his forehead. "From came it where that's so!" He said suddenly.

The Doctor glanced at her and then pulled out a notebook from his pocket. "Funny. I was just about to say it would be a whole lot easier to just write it down," she said. And then, in surprise, "Hey! That's my notebook!"

Amy darted over to one side of the TARDIS, where a small pile of her things had taken over, and extracted the same notebook. She stared at it for a moment, then wrote in big block letter.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

The Doctor flipped his notebook over.

DON'T BOTHER TO ASK WHAT'S GOING ON. IT'S ALL A BIT CONFUSING REALLY. LISTEN, IN A FEW MINUTES HERE ITS GOING TO SEEM LIKE RORY AND I JUST RUSH OUT OF HERE. SORRY IF IT SEEMS A BIT RUDE BUT WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU'D BE HERE ON THE TARDIS SO DON'T TAKE OFFENSE. OH, AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T PRESS THE BIG RED BUTTON.

Then, leaning forward, he began scribbling furiously on the paper. After a moment, he slipped it back into his pocket.

Amy agitatedly showed him what he'd written. "He already told you not to ask," said Luna.

"What?" said Amy. Then, figuring out, frowned. "Oh."

Amy and Luna considered this for a few moments, and all of a sudden the Doctor and Rory both started rushing backwards toward the door, pushing it open behind them. Rory froze, goggling at the sight of them, and the Doctor took what seemed to be a few cautious steps back.

"Before you ask, we have no idea," said Amy as she began to catch on to what was going on.

"Here you're, goodness Thank." said the Doctor. And then he and Rory both backed out of the TARDIS, the door slamming shut behind (or was in front of) them, and Luna and Amy were left alone.

"All right. I want to know how this happened," said Amy.

"Well, I guess we'll find out if we just keep moving backward," she said. "Amy, do you think that's the same notebook the Doctor had?" Luna asked.

"It looked the same," said Amy. She turned it over.

"If it is, then anything we write in it now, the Doctor will eventually read. So we'd better tell him we're waiting in the TARDIS," she said.

"Ah," said Amy. She considered for a moment, then underneath WHAT'S GOING ON wrote WAITING IN THE TARDIS. GET YOUR SORRY BUTTS BACK HERE NOW! She turned back to Luna. "So now what?"

"I say we follow them."

Eleven and a Half Hours Earlier

"Where did they go?" Rory had said it a dozen times already. As he looked at the empty patch of grass where just a few minutes before he and the Doctor had watched Luna and Amy first die a million different scenarios ran through his head. Most of them involved wringing his hands around the Doctor's skinny neck. The others involved more gruesome forms of torture.

"Now that's an excellent question," said the Doctor. He was more subdued than usual although he did add, "But they had to have gone somewhere. And it's very hard to go anywhere if you're dead. So by my logic…"

"I'm having serious doubts about your logic…" said Rory.

"Ah, but that's only logical," said the Doctor. "Anyway, I'm assuming they're alive somewhere. We're just going to have to figure out where that somewhere is."

He and Rory stood up. The twin suns of Dexas 12 were now several inches above the edge of the horizon, lightening the sky to rosy pink. "Ow. Stop throwing things at me," said Rory.

"I didn't throw anything at you," said the Doctor. He turned around to see Rory rubbing the back of his head. His gaze flitted to the ground, where he saw a small notebook laying nestled in the grass. "Actually, I think that threw itself at you," he said.

"Where did it come from?" asked Rory. He knelt down to pick it up. He turned it over. "Wait a minute. It's Amy's."

"Really, now?" said the Doctor. He went over to Rory and plucked it out of his hand, opening it up. "There's something written here," he said. "What's going on."

"I don't know what's going on," said Rory. "Why don't you tell me?" he shouted.

"No. That's what's written, see? And in Amy's handwriting." He showed Rory the page. He took it from the Doctor. "Look under that. It says waiting in the TARDIS, get your sorry butts back here."

"Let me see it again," said the Doctor. He took it from Rory, scanning the pages with the Sonic Screwdriver. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Bit of time residue, but that's to be expected. Looks like they've written a whole bunch of other stuff, too," he said. "Watch out for the crystals. Take shelter during the eclipse. What did you mean about the big red button…now, what does that mean?" he said, turning the pages. "On and on for three pages."

"It's like they're sending us messages," said Rory.

"That's exactly what it is," said the Doctor. "We'd better get back to the TARDIS, then."

"But if she threw that at me just now, she's right out there!" said Rory. "Shouldn't we go look for her?"

The Doctor paused. There was a definite not-rightness about the situation. For one of the first moments since he'd met the man, he was inclined to agree with Rory. "Yes. I guess so. Let's have a look around."

They left the copse for the edge of the forest, searching the shadows. "Hold on," he said after a moment. "Footprints." He knelt down. "Luna's, I would think. Now that's strange," he added.

"What is?"

"They're not here, but I only see footprints coming, not going. And we came in over there," he added, pointing to a path through the trees some distance to their left. He made his way over to it, searching until he found his and Rory's footprints through the dense underbrush. There was no sign of Luna's or Amy's now and he pointed this out to Rory. "It's like they never came with us, in the first place," he said.

"But they did. They were with us. Right up until those things…"

"The crystals," said the Doctor. Then he froze. Watch out for the crystals. "Watch out for the crystals!" he shouted. Rory turned quickly and then, taking the Doctor by the arm, pulled them both to the ground. Glassy shards sprayed through the woods, just inches from where they'd been standing.

"If it hadn't been for the warning, we'd be goners," he said. He remained seated on the ground and pulled the notebook back out. Taking out a pen, he crossed through the warning on the paper.

"What're you doing that for?" asked Rory, panting.

"Just keeping track," said the Doctor. "Now, that was really strange. Stranger than the usual kind of strange."

"She warned us," Rory said. "She knew it was coming."

"Something like that," said the Doctor, although there was something he felt like he wasn't quite grasping. "Well, we'd better find those footprints and follow them. They seem to be heading in the direction of the TARDIS anyway."

He slid the notebook into his pocket and he and Rory made off into the forest. The suns rose higher as they trekked into the forest, an alien pink light saturating the landscape. They had been walking for twenty minutes when the Doctor suddenly noticed that the light had deepened to purple and he stopped, reaching over to keep Rory from moving any further.

He pulled out the notebook. "Take shelter during the eclipse," he read. Then added, "Rory. Look up. Do you see what I see?"

Rory looked up. The larger of the two suns was beginning to darken as a black crescent slid over its edge. "It looks like an eclipse," he said dully.

"Ah," said the Doctor. Then all of a sudden he and Rory were running breakneck through the underbrush. Along a ridge of rock they found a shallow cave and. They dove inside just as the sky went a dark purple, the only light that of the dim second sun. There was a deadly hiss and outside the world shuddered as shards of crystal went shooting through the forest, breaking apart into trillions of minute glassy spores. "Take shelter during the eclipse, check," he said, and crossed it off the list.

Ten Hours Earlier

"I think we're catching up. Or they're catching up to us. Or however this works," said Amy as they found more footsteps in the woody underbrush. THE RIGHT PATH, NOT THE LEFT, she wrote as they came to a fork.

"Actually, I think it'll be their left," said Luna. Amy frowned, then turned.

"You're right," she said, writing ACTUALLY, THE LEFT. "So you think this is going to work?"

"Well, the Doctor had the notebook," said Luna. "I think it led them back to the TARDIS. And if anything goes wrong, we can warn them with it, can't we?" she said.

Amy nodded. Then, pausing for a moment, turned to Luna. "Here. I know how we can find them." Underneath the last line, she wrote STAND WHERE YOU ARE FOR A FEW MINUTES. AND QUACK LIKE A DUCK.

"I just want to see if they'll actually quack," she said to Luna. They stood in the silence for a few moments, and then all of a sudden they heard a faint quack, the Doctor speaking and then she heard Rory exclaim,

"Quacking not am I!"

They heard the Doctor and Rory arguing and followed it until they found them. Amy and Luna hid behind a large bush as the Doctor and Rory walked backwards and the Doctor read something out of the notebook. "Should we tell them we're here?" said Amy.

Luna shook her head. "They need to get to the TARDIS, I think. Besides, they acted like they hadn't seen us all day. And I want to keep following them, see where this all started."

Amy nodded in agreement. Neither of them was yet able to remember what it was that had started them along their strange backwards journey. They waited until the Doctor and Rory were just out of sight and continued creeping along after them.

They entered a large grove of pale yellow trees. As they watched the Doctor and Rory suddenly dropped to the ground. Amy and Luna exchanged a glance and then, in unison, the dropped too. There was a rumbling tremor as a shower of crystals shot through the air. Amy added in her notes, YELLOW TREES. GET DOWN.

"What are these?" said Luna when the worst of it was over. She examined one that hadn't broken apart when it hit the ground. It looked like it was made of hardened sap, but it was perfectly clear. "I'm starting to remember something," she said quietly as she touched it and it broke apart. The powder it left behind stung her skin and she brushed it off on her coat.

"I think I am, too," said Amy. "The further we go. But it's fuzzy."

Luna nodded. She tried to concentrate, to remember whatever it was that had happened to cause everything. But it stayed entrenched firmly at the edge of her consciousness refusing to budge. "Oh, well," she said. "We'll figure it out, soon enough."

Nine Hours Later

"So what are these crystals, anyway?" said Rory.

"They weren't here when I last visited," said the Doctor. "Dexas 12 is a forest planet, supplied by deep veins of water that run deep beneath the ground. These silvery-gray trees, they're natives. Hearty little buggers," he added. "Not much else can thrive here. Those yellow trees are aliens. If I'd seen them when we landed the TARDIS I'd have turned right around and left."

"So those crystals? They come from the yellow trees?" said Rory.

"Those crystals are living cells," explained the Doctor. "They're like a fungus, the yellow trees. They shoot shards of sap containing millions of cells out to land on the forest floor. When those shards hit Amy and Luna, they began to grow inside them."

"And they killed them," finished Rory.

The Doctor paused. "Well, it certainly looked like it," he said. He picked up the notebook, glancing inside. "Doctor. Watch out for Rory. What?" he said, looking up. He jerked back just in time to avoid Rory's fist coming at his face and, backing up, avoided the second swing. "They're not dead," he said, "or else they wouldn't be leaving us these little notes. Hey now, watch it," he said as Rory's fist connected with his shoulder. He winced, rubbing it lightly.

"If my wife…"

"Hold on," said the Doctor. He pushed Rory back, thumbing through the notes. ":Luna's not dead either, in case you were wondering. Git.," he read.

"What?" Rory blinked. The Doctor turned the notepad over so that Rory could read it for himself.

"Tell Rory I'm not dead, and sodding get over it," said the Doctor.

"What?" said Rory.

"Her words, not mine," said the Doctor, holding up the notepad again.

Seven Hours Earlier

"This is so gross," said Amy. Her foot had sunk into the earth. She slowly extricated it, wincing as she looked at the mud that encased it up to the ankle.

"I don't know," said Luna. She picked through the grass, avoiding the soft earth that Amy had fallen into. "This is kind of fun. In a muddy, dirty, dangerous kind of way.."

Amy looked up, uttering a short laugh. "Yeah. That would be the Doctor's favorite kind of fun," she said. She shook her boot, sending a small spray of dirt reverberating through the growth.

Luna glanced up at the sky. "It's getting dark. Or, it's getting un-light," she said as the sun crept back toward the horizon. "Time really is running backward."

With an exasperated groan Amy swiped the last bit of dirt from her boot, then making sure the notebook was all right she tucked it away. "I still can't remember what happened," she said. "What about you?"

Considering for a moment, Luna finally shook her head. "Bits and pieces, maybe, although I can't be sure they're really memories or I'm just dreaming. I do that a lot, these days. I remember something about the crystals though. And it seems like my heart hurts." She placed her hands over her chest. "Right here."

Amy stopped. She put her own hand to her chest. "You're right," she said. "I can feel it too."

Their eyes met one another, one full of fear and the other fathomless, the only expression within a faint sort of curiosity mingled with confusion. "I'm starting to get a little scared by all this," she said.

"Don't be. We already know the Doctor works out a solution," said Luna. "We saw it, didn't we?"

"Yeah," breathed Amy. "But…do you think he works it out in time? Luna, if we were dying but got thrown into reverse…couldn't we be, like, winding back?"

"Dying again?" said Luna. "Well, I think that's very likely. I do hope the Doctor sorts it out."

Amy was about to speak, when she heard the Doctor's voice nearby. They both rushed after them and saw that they'd paused in the middle of a clearing. "Can you make it out?" asked Amy.

"I think he said her words, not mine," said Luna.

"What?" exclaimed Rory, off in the distance.

"Rory just said…"

"I know what he said!" hissed Amy. "Hold on."

They both listened. "Something about you being alive," said Luna. "Maybe he didn't realize until now that you weren't…you know?"

"Right," said Amy. "I'd better write it down. Although it's kind of rude that he's not worried whether or not you're alive," she added. "Hold on, I'll write something about that too."

She was in the middling of the scribbling when, still in reverse, Rory began swinging at the Doctor. They stopped and stared for a moment. Amy frowned. "What a moron. I better write a warning for the Doctor," she said, scribbling one last thing into the notepad before snapping it shut.

As the scene finished they continued along after them.

Four Hours Later

"Stand where you are, and quack like a duck," said the Doctor. Then, after a moment, he reread the statement and turned to stare at Rory.

"What? Are you kidding me?" he said.

"No, it's right there," said the Doctor. He held out the page and Rory glared at it.

"I am not quacking," said Rory.

"It's right there," said the Doctor. "It must be important. You'd better do it." He stared at Rory for a long moment. "Well?"

"I'm not…I mean…" When the Doctor didn't seem to budge, he sighed. Without paying much attention to Rory the Doctor leaned in toward the forest. There was a low faint rustle and he brightened, smiling.

"Quack. Quack quack," Rory mumbled. The Doctor stopped him, leaning close.

"I think they're watching us," he said.

"What? They're here?" he said.

"Shh!" The Doctor hissed. There had been another faint rustle, from further back. "Yes. Listen, I think I understand what's going on now. Somehow, when Luna and Amy were dying, Luna was able to do some sort of magic to send the both of them back in time. But not back properly, not to change what had happened. She simply reversed the time stream for the two of them, so that the crystal would shrink back and not kill them right away."

"Yeah, okay," said Rory. Then, he blinked. "What?"

"Think about it. Luna saved herself and Amy by sending them to a point in time where I was able to do something to save them. But time is trying to restore itself by pushing them backwards through it, to the point where the crystal killed them both. They're following us…sort of…back in time to the point where they died. The point, actually, where Amy must have thrown the notebook at your head to guide us back along this path."

"So what you're saying is they're going to die, all over again? If you can't figure out a way to save them?" Rory asked.

The Doctor stared off into the forest. "I'll figure out a way," he said. "Let's just keep going."

As the Doctor and Rory came to a fork in the road, they paused. The Doctor stared first one way, and then the other, before pulling out the notebook. "Actually, the left," he read. Rory started to walk towards the left side and the Doctor stopped him. "The right path, not the left."

"What?" said Rory. It occurred to Rory then that he was saying 'What' a lot that day, but it very much seemed a what kind of day.

"I think she meant the left," said the Doctor.

"But she said the right, not the left."

"I think she wrote that before she wrote actually, the left. So I'm thinking it's the left," said the Doctor.

It took a few moments, but finally convinced they both headed off on the left path.

Ten Hours Later

I can hardly breathe," said Amy, her hand now on her chest. "It hurts."

"It feels like something is growing in there," said Luna, her eyes unusually dim. She reached out her hand to Amy and helped her to her feet. "We have to keep walking. We have to make it to…to wherever."

Amy nodded and suddenly began to cough. A trickle of blood appeared at the corner of her lip. She touched it and stared down at her fingers. "I'm dying," she whispered.

Luna shook her head. "We'll make it. Don't worry, we will. I promise," she said. Then, as if she were pleading, "You're my friend right?"

"What?" Amy glanced up. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am."

"Then trust me," said Luna. "I won't let anything happen to you anymore than the Doctor would."

Amy took a deep, ragged breath. And together, the two girls walked off.

Eleven and a Half Hours Earlier

"I think I've got it!" said the Doctor suddenly.

"What?" said Rory, spinning around.

"I've just got to figure out a way to jolt Luna and Amy back in time to the point where they were when they started. It all makes perfect sense!" he said suddenly. "Because that's the reason they're in the TARDIS! Or will be, when we get there. They're going to wake up there, the moment I jolt them in. It's another time loop. Of course! Why didn't I see it! I just have to figure out the schematics to make it work…"

"I didn't understand anything you just said," said Rory. "But I hope for both of their sakes it works, Doctor."

They came finally through the forest and saw the bright blue shell of the TARDIS standing at the center of a clearing. The Doctor and Rory broke into a run and burst through the doors. Amy and Luna were looking calmly and somewhat bemusedly at them. The Doctor sighed.

"You're here, thank goodness."

"Idea no have we, ask you before," said Amy, holding up both hands.

The Doctor and Rory both rushed into the TARDIS, Rory pausing next to Amy and the Doctor making his way to the TARDIS console, where he began to flick idly at buttons. After a moment he leaned forward, taking out the notebook to scribble something which he held out for Amy to see.

DON'T BOTHER TO ASK WHAT'S GOING ON. IT'S ALL A BIT CONFUSING REALLY. LISTEN, IN A FEW MINUTES HERE ITS GOING TO SEEM LIKE RORY AND I JUST RUSH OUT OF HERE. SORRY IF IT SEEMS A BIT RUDE BUT WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU'D BE HERE ON THE TARDIS SO DON'T TAKE OFFENSE. OH, AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T PRESS THE BIG RED BUTTON.

Amy furrowed her brow, scribbling something in her own notebook. The Doctor ignored her for a moment. All of a sudden she rushed backwards, sliding the notebook into the pocket of an old coat, and started to babble in reverse.

"Oh! So that's where she got that!" said Rory, slapping himself on the forehead. Coming back around, Amy glanced at Rory.

"Oh," she said, and babbled something else.

"Patterns speech the not but words the translate can TARDIS the," said Luna faintly.

"Good work," said the Doctor. "The TARDIS can translate the words but not the speech patterns." He continued to pace, tapping his forehead. Then, every few moments, he would interject the babble between Luna and Amy with something else. "Exactly. Except you're the one's going backward," he said at one point. Then, turning around, "Rory, have a seat, you're making me nervous!"

Rory jumped and left Amy, sitting down at the other side of the TARDIS. "You , not us," said the Doctor after a moment more.

And finally, after a few more moments, he said, "You're traveling backwards." The moment he said it, a light began to gleam in his eye. He mouthed it again, twice, and suddenly shouted "I've got it!" Jumping up be began spinning dials and turning levers, turning knobs and gears until everything was in its proper place. Just one more thing…

Twelve Hours Earlier

"I can't go on." Amy collapsed on the ground. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. Luna knew, without question, that she was dying. "Take this. Get it to them," she said hoarsely. "Go."

Luna, with a nod, took the notebook, leaving Amy laying still and quiet in the grass. Although the pain in her own chest was excruciating she ran as fast as she could, closing the final distance between herself and the clearing.. She stepped up just in time to see the Doctor and Rory leaning over two still, pale bodies sprawled on the grass. She lifted the book…

At just the moment she started to throw it something jerked her through time and space with a terrific jolt. The book flew high in the air, where it would arc and twirl several times before finally striking Rory in the head. She was spinning, around and around, and all of a sudden she was crashing onto the deck of the TARDIS. Her hand reached out and hit something. A wailing alarm filled the small room as she gasped, sitting straight up.

The pain in her chest was gone. The Doctor was staring down at her. And time, finally, seemed right again.

"You pushed the button," said the Doctor.

"What?

"I wanted to push the button that sealed time back together," he said. "I told you not to."

"I'm sorry," said Luna. "I don't think I meant to."

The Doctor helped her to her feet, and somewhere on the other side Rory was doing the same with Amy. Luna took a long, deep breath. "So, we're back to normal?"

"As normal as things ever are around here," said the Doctor.

"Good." Luna put her hand to her chest, breathing deeply.

About five minutes passed before anybody could speak. Finally, the Doctor asked, "So where to now? I think we ought to be on our way."

"Earth," said Amy. "After that, we deserve a little earth."

The Doctor looked just the tiniest bit disappointed, but finally grinned. "Well then. If it's earth you want, then it's earth you shall have."

"Ominoreg!"


	5. The Chieftain, Part One

**A Doc, a Looney and a Box**

**Author's Note: **I've been busy. At the moment, I'm working on my original fiction most of the time which leaves very little wiggle room to write on here. I want to at least get the second chapter of this up before I dive back into my other story. If you're interested in reading the other stuff I am working on, check out . Look for Meg Moore.

**Chapter Five: The Chieftain, Part One**

"Mum? What's that sound?" A small boy with shockingly messy black hair paused between bites of cereal, glancing over at the door.

"Hmm?" His father lowered his newspaper, looking down at him. "I didn't hear anything. Probably just the wind."

"It wasn't the wind," said the boy. But after a moment he continued on with eating his breakfast, looking every once in a while at the door. Albus Potter, Al for short, was used to strange and unusual things. His father worked for the Ministry of Magic, after all – he had since long before Al was even born. So whenever he caught any sign of something out of the ordinary, he knew better than to ignore it. Something strange and unusual was always bound to happen.

A few minutes passed. His older brother, James, came running into the room shouting and his mother soon followed, holding his younger sister Lily close to her side.

"There was as strange noise outside," announced Albus. "Like a…a wheezing."

"You heard it to? I thought I was imagining things," said Ginny Potter.

Harry Potter frowned. This time he folded up the paper and set it aside, pushing away from the breakfast table. "Perhaps I had better have a look," he said. And with that being said he went to the kitchen door and yanked it open. Several feet away there was a very large blue box standing in the yard. But that wasn't the thing that Harry noticed first.

"Luna!" he said, standing still as he stared at a tall, pale woman with very long blonde hair and very large blue eyes. "I haven't seen you in years! What are you doing here?"

"I came to ask you something." The woman didn't move. She was staring at Harry's face. Or, to be more exact, she was staring at Harry's forehead. Shakily she reached forward, touching a long slender finger to his unmarked skin. "Harry? What happened to your scar?"

_Three Days Earlier_

"Ah! Scotland!" said the Doctor, patting Luna and Amy on their shoulders. They were standing at the edge of an overgrown forest – one that only Luna knew well. A large castle sat nearby, and Amy was staring at it curiously.

"Is that the magic school?" she asked. "Where all the…the magicky things happen?"

Luna nodded, smiling a little bit as she turned her face toward it. "Yes. Hogwarts. It's summer, so there shouldn't be too many people around."

There was a faint scuffling and snorting. Everybody glanced down to see Puff darting around their ankles, sniffing at the grass before stopping suddenly and turning its bulbous eyes toward Hogwarts. It let out a raspy bark, tail wagging slightly.

"She likes it here," said Luna. "She probably hasn't been around other magical creatures in her entire life. Imagine being cooped up like that, all alone," she said. "I'm so glad we managed to get her out."

"Yes. Lucky we found her," said the Doctor. But he was looking at Luna as he said this, and Amy was certain that it wasn't the dragon-pug that he was talking about.

"Come on," said Luna. "I'll show you around a bit. You're probably the first muggles that have laid eyes on Hogwarts in centuries."

Ignoring Puff as she romped through the grass, Luna made her way toward the castle. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory all followed her as she picked a path that led them around a large lake, where the water began to ripple as they approached. Amy eyed it suspiciously, but nothing happened, and when they arrived at the front door to the castle Luna pushed it and with a faint groan it gave way, revealing a large entrance hall.

"I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu," said the Doctor, as he craned his neck around to look up at the rafters.

"Hmm. Curious," said Luna. But she was paying little attention to any of the others. Her attention was directed at the castle. She hadn't set foot inside it since that day, now so very long ago, when everybody had fought for the fate of the wizarding world. In her mind's eye she could still picture the bodies laid out along the cold, stone floor – friends and strangers alike.

There was no longer any trace of the evils that had taken place here. And that, she supposed, was the way that the world worked. She had already seen it, hadn't she? The evils of the past were always wiped away by time – remembered only by those that had been there, and then in history, and finally forgotten.

"I almost died here," she said absently, as she began to wander into the great hall. The tables were all lined up exactly how she always remembered. High up above the enchanted ceiling showed a bright summer's sky, brilliant blue. "I'm very glad I didn't."

She moved automatically to the Ravenclaw table, tracing her hands along the wood. Behind her, the Doctor was also moving along the tables, pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver every once in a while to investigate something that had caught his attention. At one point he stopped, and bending down underneath one of the tables pulled out a dusty hat that had been abandoned by some student the year before.

"Hey! A wizard hat," he said, and without a second thought he shook out the dust and put it on.

"What's that?" laughed Amy, pointing at him.

"I wear a wizard hat now," he said. "Wizard hats are cool."

"Excuse me?" came a small voice. Everybody suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked up at the podium, where a young woman was standing and staring down at them in surprise. "May I ask who you are and what you're doing here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Luna. "Just a little sightseeing," she added. She narrowed her eyes, realizing that she knew the woman but not quite certain how. Then it dawned on her. "You're Hannah Abbot, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes. And you're…" The woman stopped suddenly, eyes widening in surprise. "Luna Lovegood? It can't be!" She suddenly rushed down from the raised dais, until she was just a few feet away from her. "Why, of course! Mercy me, I haven't seen you in years! Neville will be so pleased to hear you've come back. Let me run and get him!" And with that she rushed out of the room, leaving everybody staring in surprise at the strange reaction.

"Do you think she's run to get the authorities?" said Luna airily. "I did escape from St. Mungo's after all."

"I'd say it's a safe bet," said the Doctor. But after a few minutes Hannah returned, and with her was Luna's old school friend, who grinned widely and moved toward her, wrapping her up in a large hug.

"Finally back home!" he said. "What brings you here after all this time? Last I heard you were off exploring in Romania…"

"Well, I have been off exploring," she said. Now it was not very often that Luna was surprised by anything, but there was a wrongness about the things that Neville was saying that put her off. Certainly everybody she had ever known realized she'd spent most of her life after Hogwarts locked up at the hospital. Or did they?

From the looks on Neville and Hannah's faces they really did seem happy to see her, and not in the least concerned that she was mad or that she was planning on killing them. It was all very strange.

"I was just finishing up some work in the greenhouse. Leave it to me to take the one teaching job in all of Hogwarts that makes me work through the summer," he laughed. "Let me take you and your friends on down to the Three Broomsticks and buy you all a drink?" He craned his neck around so that he was looking at the others. "Ah…do they speak English?" he asked.

"Un paquito," said the Doctor with a smile.

"Nein," said Rory, seeming a little amused.

"Uhm…konichiwa?" muttered Amy, laughing.

"They speak English," said Luna. Neville and Hannah led the group out of the castle and down the long ridge towards Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks was just as Luna remembered, and when she walked inside it was obvious that Neville and his wife weren't the only people who seemed to have forgotten the time that Luna had spent at St. Mungo's.

"The explorer!" said Madame Rosmerta, smiling sweetly at her.

"We'll take that table at the back, if you don't mind," said Neville, and as the barmaid left to get them their drinks they arranged themselves in their seats.

"You must spend a lot of time with muggles," said Neville, glancing at the way they were dressed. "You could practically pass as one if you needed to," he said.

"Hooray!" said Amy, somewhat sarcastically, as she tried not to laugh.

"She's Amy. That's Rory," said Luna, introducing her two friends. "Erm…actually, they've taken a vow not to use magic. They're professional muggleologists."

"Oh, is that right?" said Neville. "You know, we're looking for a new muggle studies professor. Perhaps I'll put your name in with Dumbledore."

And, just like that, the world suddenly stopped.

"Dumbledore?" said Luna. "But he's…I mean, he hasn't retired yet?"

"Him? Of course not. He'd be lost without Hogwarts, I think. And Hogwarts would be lost without him. Got to have somebody to keep it safe from the Ministry, after all." He lowered his voice as he said this, and Hannah seemed suddenly afraid. She glanced all around, as if to see whether or not anybody had heard him.

"Shh!" she warned, reaching over and taking his hand. Neville smiled.

"Sorry. Loose lips," he said quietly.

Now Luna was looking over at the Doctor. There was definitely something wrong, and they both knew it. "Is there…any way we could speak to Dumbledore? About the position," she added hastily.

"I'm sure we could arrange it. In fact, I know he'd love to have you lecture for Care of Magical Creatures. It would be a real coup for Hogwarts to have a visit from the most famous naturalist in the world," he added.

Luna nodded gravely. Naturalist? Well, that had been her goal in life, before…

"I think we're headed for London," said Luna. "We're going to be staying for a little while. Do you know of any place where we could get lodging?"

"Why, I run the Leaky Cauldron now that old Tom finally retired," said Hannah. "Don't you remember? I can put you up for a while. Free of charge!"

"Thank you," said all four of them.

"I'll be around later," said Luna.

When they got back to the TARDIS, Luna was shaking. She managed to hide her feelings for a little while, searching through the fields until she finally found Puff sunning herself amidst a patch of wild buttercups. But when she finally got inside and they closed the door, the Doctor jumped on her.

"What's happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said shakily. "Dumbledore should be dead. I should be on the run – not a naturalist. Definitely not a famous naturalist."

"Parallel universe?" said Rory.

"Most definitely not!" said the Doctor. But, to be safe, he run to the TARDIS console and spent several minutes running figures and checking data. "Absolutely not," he said again, after a little while.

"Then we have to figure out what's happened," said Amy. "If it's affecting the magical world, it might be affecting the rest of the world too."

"It could be affecting a lot more than that," said the Doctor. "Even the slightest little change in time can have disastrous consequences. And a dead man coming back to life is more than a slight change."

"So where to?" said Amy. "Where do you even start?"

Luna sighed. She knew exactly where to go. "The Ministry. If something has gone terribly wrong, we'll be able to find it there."

They transported to London, the Doctor hiding the TARDIS in plain sight in an alleyway that was fairly close to the location of the Leaky Cauldron. They got there just a little after Hannah and Neville, and once again Luna had to field a room full of people before she managed to get Hannah to show them to their rooms.

Hers looked out over Diagon Alley, and having nothing to unpack she stood at the window for a long moment while Hannah plumped up the pillows and told her what time breakfast was served and finally excused herself. It was the same Diagon Alley that had always been – or was it? As she watched she realized, with faint surprise, that she was beginning to see slight changes here and there.

A small building existed where there hadn't been one before, and it wasn't new – in fact, it looked like it was centuries old. Gringott's bank was smaller than it should have been, and the pristine goblin-made towers had been replaced by aged white stone. But more than that, there was an air of defeated-ness that Luna just couldn't understand. Did it have something to do with the Ministry? She wondered at that, at the statement that Neville had made, and was still running it over in her mind when there was a knock at the door and Amy appeared.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Not really. I never was, though," said Luna with a small laugh. She shook her head, pulling herself from the window and sitting down on top of the bed.

"I know the feeling," said Amy, sitting down at the other end.

"It all started with Hermione. The girl that no one remembers," said Luna. "It all started there."

They went into Diagon Alley immediately the next morning, so that Luna could see the changes up close. She was right in her original observation that the bank was no longer run by Goblins. In fact, it seemed to her, the bank had never been run by goblins. A quick glance inside revealed tired looking witches and wizards in Ministry robes manning the counters.

Luna felt a small twinge in her chest when she passed by Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, seeing two red heads standing in the front window. So Fred was still alive too, she thought, remembering how she had hurt for her friend Ron and his family when he had been killed in the battle.

And it was then that the thought began to strike her that perhaps this world was a better world. People that she cared about, people that mattered, were still alive. Scattered throughout the crowd she saw supernatural creatures – house elves wearing clothes, werewolves queuing around to purchase Wolfsbane potion, and even once under cover of a large dark umbrella what looked to be a vampire.

But her doubts resurfaced when she thought about what Neville had said. If Hogwarts, and Dumbledore, opposed the Ministry, then there must be something that she couldn't see just yet.

"I've seen enough," she said after a few hours. Amy and Rory, oblivious to the changes, had enjoyed the trip to the magical part of London. Amy was sporting a brand new robe, straight from Madame Malkin's, and Rory had bagged a handful of treats from the sweet shop (after Luna had convinced him that they were, for the most part, all safe to eat.)

"So are we heading to the Ministry now?" said Amy.

"You aren't," said the Doctor.

"What? But…"

"I don't think it would be a good idea," said Luna. "They might be able to tell you're muggles. If that were to happen, they'd have a team of wizards on hand to Obliviate your memories. It'd be safer for you to stay at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Oh. Right," said Amy.

They dropped them off and, using the fireplace and a handful of Floo powder, Luna took herself and the Doctor straight to the Ministry.

It was a much quieter place than it used to be, and just like in Diagon Alley all sorts of other magical creatures were milling around in addition to witches and wizards. To her surprise a centaur went strolling by, his upper half encased in a business suit. He held a briefcase in one hand.

"That's weird," said the Doctor mildly as he watched it pass.

"No," said Luna. "That's weird." She pointed at the statue at the center of the room. A golden throne held a golden figure – a young woman who sat in stately repose. All around her were other figures, of all kinds of magical creatures, fashioned out of silver. Luna made towards it, leaning down to see the script on an engraving at the statues base.

"All hail the Chieftain," she murmured.

"Do you have a copy of A History of Magic?"

Hannah looked over at Luna from across the bar, pausing with two overflowing mugs of butterbeer in her hands.

"It's for my friends," she added.

"Oh. Right. I think I still have my old school copy. I'll send it up to your room later."

"Thank you." Luna moved back from the bar and went over to the table, where Amy and Rory were having dinner. She sat down, and a few minutes later the Doctor came in the front door, striding straight to them and sitting down.

"I found my copy. You should have told me you moved it out of the fiction section," he said, glancing over at Luna.

"It's not fiction." She sipped daintily at her mug of pumpkin juice before digging into the meat pie that Hannah had delivered.

The Doctor set down the copy of A History of Magic. "This one should be exactly as it was originally written. I think this copy is from 1999."

"So it should have everything about the Second Wizarding War in it too. Good," she said. The mug clicked against the table as she sat it down. "We need to see where the changes begin. Then maybe we can figure out exactly what happened."

"And who the Chieftain is," he added.

Luna sighed, glancing down. "I don't know. Should we really change it? It seems…peaceful."

"You shouldn't change time," said the Doctor. "Ever. It's a rule."

"Rules are made to be broken," said Amy.

"Not this one," said the Doctor. "And trust me…I'm the grand Pooh-Bah of breaking rules."

It wasn't until late that evening that Hannah finally delivered the book to Luna's room. She called the others in, and they spent the entire evening going through both books, comparing passages. The first light of the next day was finally coming out when they finished them, and now it wasn't just Luna who was concerned.

"It's all different," said the Doctor. "Every last bit of it."

"There are no houses at Hogwarts. No founders. Only the Chieftain."

And that was the trouble. Throughout the new history, the Chieftain continued to appear. She founded Hogwarts, and quelled the great Troll raids during the Dark Ages. She appeared again to end both the first and second Wizarding War before they even started. There was a single line that mentioned the great wizard Grindelwald, and not a single trace of Tom Riddle or the dark lord Voldemort.

"Is it one person, who a bunch of different people calling themselves the Chieftain?" asked Amy.

"If it's the same person doing it all, it's a time traveler," said the Doctor. "And as far as I know, the only witch that has ever traveled through time is…"

"Is somebody that even you don't remember," said Luna. "Hermione. But this isn't the sort of thing she would do."

"Isn't it?" said the Doctor. "Even you wouldn't mind leaving your world like this. You humans…you're all alike. You're so willing to do these horrible things, if it's for…"

"The Greater Good," finished a voice from the doorway. They all turned, and nobody was more surprised than Luna by the sight of the man who stood there. His bright blue eyes twinkled behind half-moon glasses as he took a step into the room.


	6. The Chieftain, Part Two

**A Doc, a Looney, and a Box**

**Chapter Six: The Chieftain, Part Two**

"Professor Dumbledore!" Luna said, rising from her seat.

"I was asked to come here to speak to potential muggle studies professor. If you don't mind me making assumptions, I'm guessing that was a bit of a lie."

The old man moved towards the only empty seat and took it with a flourish, glancing at the two books still laid out on top of Luna's bed.

"If I may make further assumptions, I would also guess that you are not the Luna Lovegood that is a naturalist studying creatures in Romania," he said. "So, please, tell me who you really are."

Luna glanced at the Doctor, then back at Dumbledore. "I'm a time traveler," she said. "And you're supposed to be dead."

Luna had never been close to Dumbledore, not in the way that her friend Harry had, so she didn't know exactly how he could have been expected to react to that kind of statement. She most certainly didn't expect him to twine his fingers together and sit back in the chair, staring at her with an open and unsurprised expression on his face.

"Is that so?" he said. "Then allow me to make one more assumption. You must be the Doctor."

A series of strange things happened then. The Doctor looked surprised, then confused, then his face went black and his lips started to move slightly as if he were trying to remember suddenly. Then he gasped, jumping up and pointing at Dumbledore.

"Al!" he said. "Al Dorian!"

"Ah. My "muggle" name. I haven't used that in years," he said.

"Wait. You know the Doctor?" said Amy in surprise. But now the two men were barely paying attention to the other people in the room. The Doctor moved over to Dumbledore, reaching out to take his hand.

"You mean you were a wizard that entire time, and you never bothered to tell me? You sly old dog!"

"Ah, don't take it personally," said Dumbledore. "UNIT would have tried to dissect me, or something like that, if they had known."

"UNIT?" said Luna, Amy, and Rory in unison.

"Our old friend, the Brigadier, recently left us, you know," said Dumbledore with a faint nod. "Then again, of course you know," he added.

The Doctor nodded back, appearing suddenly solemn.

"You've changed a good deal," said Dumbledore. "I like the bow tie."

"Bow ties are cool," said the Doctor. "You've changed a bit yourself."

Dumbledore laughed, nodding sagely. "So I have," he said. He stood up from his chair, moving over to the two books. He picked up the one that the Doctor had removed from the TARDIS. "If you are here, then I suppose I would be correct in making one last assumption. Something isn't right, here."

"That would be right," said Luna. "The world that I know…the world of magic…isn't like this, Professor. Somebody has changed it."

Dumbledore looked down at the book. "Not right at all," he said. Then he stopped and turned. "You remember her too, don't you?" he asked. "Hermione Granger."

It felt to Luna that the world suddenly came crashing down on her. She couldn't do anything for a very long moment. She couldn't even breathe. It was when everything started spinning that she finally took in one long breath and let it back out. The image of her old friend's face was swimming in front of her eyes.

"Yes," she said, holding back her tears.

Dumbledore nodded. "Allow me to borrow this. I will return it as soon as possible."

And with that he swept out of the room. Now Luna did start to cry, something she hadn't done in a great many years, and the Doctor and Rory excused themselves from the room. As they stood out in the hall, listening to Amy comfort her, Rory said something that surprised even the Doctor.

"Does it seem to you that Luna's getting…easier to understand?" he said.

The Doctor turned to look at the door that separated them from the girls. Then he looked back at Rory, eyebrows raised.

"As if a fog has been lifted from her. Yes, it does seem that way," he said, surprised that he hadn't noticed it sooner. "Perhaps it means we're getting close to something."

"He won't remember," said the Doctor. "Luna…"

"I have to try!" They were standing around the TARDIS, having just landed. "If I can't get him to remember anything, then all hope is lost!" And with that being said she yanked open the door and stormed across the small yard up to the front door of the little house. She didn't even get a chance to knock before it opened and she was staring straight at one of her oldest and dearest friends.

"Luna!" said Harry in surprise as he stood at the other side of the threshold, staring at her. "I haven't seen you in years! What are you doing here?"

"Harry," said Luna shakily, as she reached out with one hand and touched a finger to his forehead. "What happened to your scar?"

Harry put his hand to his forehead. "What scar?" he asked. "Luna? Are you all right?"

She shook her head. "It's…nothing. It's everything." The Doctor and the Ponds came up behind her. "These are my friends," she said, introducing all of them in turn. After that was done Harry ushered them all into the house, where she spotted two young boys fighting at the breakfast table while Ginny held up a young girl as she poured herself a mug of pumpkin juice.

"Look who it is!" said Harry.

Ginny turned around, smiling when she saw Luna. "I was wondering how many years it would be before we saw you again! You've stayed away far too long! Come and meet your namesake," she said.

The little redheaded girl looked up owlishly at Luna as Ginny crossed the room. "This is Lily Luna Potter."

Luna couldn't help but smile. "You named her after me? I…thank you," she said, before Ginny sailed away again, barking at the boys to stop fighting.

"Harry, I need to talk to you…" Luna began, but Harry cut her off.

"Of course! We have a lot of catching up to do. But you couldn't have come at a worse time. I have a lot of work to do today or the Minister will have my head. Please, come to dinner though, we'd love to have you."

Luna sighed. "Sure," she said.

After that, she excused herself from the Potter house. "Doctor?" she said, as they stood outside in the small yard listening to the two boys inside the house fighting with one another (and Ginny yelling at them, again, to stop). "I think we ought to go to Romania."

It was a quick trip in the TARDIS, and when Luna stepped out into the high brush she immediately caught sight of a young woman with her long blonde hair bundled up on top of her head, running through the brush after something, her wand held aloft.

"Excuse me! Other Luna! Do you mind if I have a word?" she said.

The woman stopped, turning her wide blue eyes on Luna. "Oh!" she said, without any real alarm. She picked her way over. "You're me," she said.

"And I'm you," said Luna. "Mostly."

"How strange. You're not using Polyjuice Potion?"

Luna shook her head. "I'm afraid not. It seems that I've stumbled into an alternate timeline sort of thing. Time travel, and all of that."

"Ah, that explains it," said the Other Luna. "Would you like some tea? I could conjure some up, if you'd like."

"No thanks," said Luna. "I'm not really fond of tea."

"Oh. I don't like tea either. I should have known I wouldn't like tea."

"That's all right. We don't usually have ourself as a guest," said Luna.

"And she's back to normal. Or…not so normal. How she usually is," said Rory.

"And there's two of them," said the Doctor. "How exciting!"

They followed the Other Luna out of the brush and towards a small tent set up at the edge of it. The Other Luna ducked inside, with Luna close behind. The Doctor and Amy followed, with Rory eyeing the tent suspiciously before following.

"Oh. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside," said Rory with some surprise, looking around at what looked to be the inside of a small house.

"Now that's how you're supposed to react!" said the Doctor, seeming slightly annoyed about something as he looked at Rory. The Lunas sat down at a small table, each glancing at the other for a long moment.

"Is this about Hermione?" asked the Other Luna. "I remember her too, you know. Even though I don't know how I know, or from where."

There was a stunned silence. "Yes, it's about her," said Luna. "And…a lot of other things, too," she said. "Other me…you see, there was this big war that happened. A lot of people were killed."

"Oh?" said Other Luna, eyes widening. "How terrible."

"It was."

She shivered. "I'm glad I never had to go through anything like that," she said.

"You did. Or, I did. But I'm you, so in a way you did. You see?"

"Oh," said the Other Luna. "Of course. That makes sense."

"Does it?" muttered Amy, getting a warning glance from the Doctor.

Luna closed her eyes suddenly. "I need someone…someone who understands," she said. "Do you have a Pensieve?"

The Other Luna stared at her for a moment. Then quietly she moved from the table, going to a cupboard and pulling out a wide stone basin. She sat it at the center of the table and everybody moved to make way as Luna moved toward it. "I need a traditional wand for this," she said, setting her own Sonic Wand down. The Other Luna held up her wand and Luna took it, giving it the sort of look that somebody might give an old friend before moving it to her temple and, closing her eyes, extracted a long silvery fragment of magic and dropping it in the bowl.

She did it again and again, until the basin filled up with thoughts and memories. It looked to be so full that it was almost overflowing. Then, seeming exhausted, Luna sat down with a long sigh.

The Other Luna glanced down into the bowl. "Oh. I see," she said. And with a careful finger she touched the contents of the Pensieve and went suddenly still. Luna looked up then, at the Doctor and Rory and Amy.

"You look too," she said. "You need to understand. All of you."

The three of them glanced at each other. Then, the Doctor going first, they all reached out and touched her memories.

It started with a boy on a train. The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and the Other Luna all watched as Harry Potter and Luna spoke for the first time. "It didn't happen that way," said the Other Luna.

She would be saying that a lot as they went through Luna's memories.

Some were short. Some seemed like they would never end. The endless ones came more and more as they went through them, until finally they were standing in the Great Hall and watching as blood and fire rained through the halls of the Lunas' beloved school.

"It didn't happen that way at all," she said.

But they now understood. Even the Doctor, who had been through many wars – the greatest war, perhaps, that time would ever see—was affected by the memories of one young girl who had been there through the middle of it all.

When they finally came out of the Pensieve Luna looked as if she had fallen asleep. But the moment she heard them her eyes flew open and they watched. Amy was crying silently, and without warning she threw herself at Luna and gave her a hug.

"I am so sorry," she said. Rory reached over, putting his hand awkwardly on her shoulder, and even the Doctor came over and rested his cheek on top of her head.

But the Other Luna was standing there in shock, eyes wide. "Why would you want that?" she said. "How could you want to change it back?"

"Because it's real," said Luna.

"This is real," said the Other Luna. She closed her eyes then, and suddenly Luna realized that this person – however much they looked alike, and thought alike, could never be her.

She would never close her eyes on the truth.

"Get out," said the Other Luna. "Leave here. I am going to Obliviate my memory the moment you go. And please…never come back."

They sat around the Potter's dinner table, Luna looking at the empty space where the lightning bolt shaped scar should have been, and talking about things that should have been perfectly normal.

Except they weren't.

It was normal at all for Harry Potter to talk about the trip his parents were taking in Australia. Not normal at all, because everybody knew that Harry's parents were dead. It wasn't normal for them to talk about Harry's days playing professional Quidditch before he went to work for the Ministry, because everybody knew that Harry had become an Auror and continued to fight dark wizards after the events of the war.

Everybody knew this wasn't normal, except all of a sudden now it was. Luna couldn't blame the Other Luna for wanting to forget what was, and what shouldn't be.

And all of a sudden Luna was having doubts about trying to make Harry remember the past. And she knew the Doctor could see it, too. He was staring at her as they ate, as if trying to read every thought that went through her head. And Luna didn't doubt that the Doctor could do it, if he tried.

So they went through dinner, and they had just had dessert when there was a knock at the door.

"Excuse me," said Harry, putting down his napkin as he left the table.

He was gone for a moment, and then he returned with two men in dark hooded robes close behind him.

Luna didn't even have time to react. "Stupify!" shouted the first man. Luna silently slumped down and hit the floor as the other man stunned Amy and Rory.

"Oh no you don't!" shouted the Doctor.

"Avada Kedavra!" the second man roared, and a bright green light surrounded the Doctor. He looked at the man in surprise, and then he two slumped down beside the others.

"What is this?" shouted Harry.

"None of your concern, Mr. Potter," said the first man, pulling the hood away from his face. "I'm here on Dumbledore's orders." Severus Snape turned to the second man. "And you did not have orders to kill this man," he said, gesturing at the Doctor.

"I thought it best." The second man pulled the hood away from his face. Arthur Weasley sighed, lifting up his wand and pointing it at his horrified son-in-law, daughter, and grandchildren. "I hate to have to do this again. Obliviate!" he shouted.

When Luna finally began to stir, her entire body felt like she'd taken a high fall off of a broomstick. It took her several moments before she realized she was bound, hand and foot, and seated inside one of the dungeons in Hogwarts.

"Where are we?" Amy groaned, from somewhere beside her.

"Shh!" Luna whispered frantically. She didn't know if they were alone or not. The last thing she wanted was for whoever was keeping guard on them to know that they were awake. She could feel a heavy weight in her pocket and silently thanked no one in particular. Whoever had taken her prisoner must not have realized that the Sonic Wand was a magical tool, and therefore had thought it was useless. Now all she had to do was get to it.

Shifting her weight, she managed to pull herself up off of her side and into a sitting position. Then, as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she caught sight of the shapes of her friends sitting nearby. As quietly as she could she scooted across the floor to the one that was moving, guessing correctly that it was Amy.

"See if you can get into my pocket," she hissed quietly.

There was a pause, then the figure nodded. She shifted closer and felt hands moving into her coat. Almost at once Amy located the Sonic Wand, and pulled it out of her pocket.

It dropped immediately to the floor with a deafening clatter.

"What was that?" came a voice from outside. Luna dropped down, covering the Sonic Wand with her body and closing her eyes as the door opened slightly, flooding the room with light. A hooded figure stood there for a long moment, scanning the three figures prone on the floor. Then after a little while he closed the door and locked it. Luna waited until she heard footsteps moving away before rolling a little and grabbing the Sonic Wand.

"He must have gone to get somebody!" said Amy. "Hurry!"

Luna whispered a spell, and the ropes binding her were sliced away. She tucked the Sonic Wand back into her pocket and quickly untied Amy and Rory, using the wand to wake up the latter.

"Where are we?" he muttered sleepily.

"Where's the Doctor?" said Amy.

"I don't know. Come on!" said Luna. She ran to the door. "Alohomora!" she whispered, and with a click it flew open. They darted out into the hall. Amy and Rory followed Luna as she ran, leading them past the Great Hall and to a long stairway. Nobody said anything until they entered a dark, empty room.

"This is the Ravenclaw common room," said Luna. "We should be safe for a few minutes."

"Why are we at Hogwarts? Where's the Doctor?" said Amy.

"I don't know. And I don't know," said Luna.

But she did know. Or, at least, she thought she knew. She could dimly remember the incantation of Avada Kedavra being spoken as she lay there, sliding into unconsciousness, on the floor of the Potter home. And since she and Rory and Amy were alive that could only mean one thing.

"I'm not dead," came a voice.

They all turned around. Leaning against the doorway was a silvery specter, staring at them with faint curiosity etched on its face.

"A ghost!" said Rory.

"Now, you see, I just said I wasn't dead," said the Doctor. "Which would mean I'm not a ghost, either. My body is, however, still attempting to recover from the trauma of that curse that was thrown at me. Took out one of my hearts. I was this close to regenerating," he said, holding up his fingers. "No matter. I used the unique energy vortex surrounding Hogwarts to create a temporal hologram so I could come and find you."

"Where's your body?" said Amy.

"Ah," said the Doctor. "That would be the problem. "Al Dorian, a.k.a. Albus Dumbledore, has it locked up in his office. Now, I can think of a few ways…"

"No time!" said Luna. She held out her wand. "Accio Doctor's body!"

Nothing happened. Then, something did happen. There was a loud bumping sound and then something crashed through the window. The Doctor's body came flying inside, landing on top of one of the low couches.

"You could have been more gentle," said the Doctor.

"Can you…you know, go back in?" said Amy.

"Not yet. I'm still recovering, thank you very much," he said, glaring at Luna.

"All right. So how about we just…pop on out of here!" said Amy.

"It's not that easy. We have to get off the grounds before I can Apparate, and even then four people is too much for one person to move through space," said Luna. "And…Doctor, if you're using the castle to create your ghost thingy…"

"Temporal hologram."

"Then the moment we leave the castle, we won't have your help."

The Doctor nodded.

Luna stood silently for a moment. Then she nodded. "I know what we have to do. Amy, Rory, take the Doctor's body with you and head back down to Hogsmeade. Wait, here…" She dug around until she found a pencil and some parchment, scribbling instructions on a piece of paper. "If I go with you, we'll get caught. They won't be able to detect you as easily, since you're muggles."

"But Luna…"

"She's right," said the Doctor. "And I can stay with her until you have my body off the grounds."

"Which means we have to work fast," she said. "So go!"

Rory and Amy glanced at each other, then hefting the Doctor over his shoulder they took off back out the entryway to the Ravenclaw common room.

Luna waited for a moment. Then, when she was sure they were gone, she took off into the hall and ran in the opposite direction.


	7. The Chieftain, Part Three

**A Doc, a Looney, and a Box**

**Author's Note: **Sorry about all the cliffhangers. What was originally supposed to be one chapter just keeps going on, and on, and on. Not necessarily a bad thing, though. It's getting interesting. I'll probably have one more chapter by the end of the day.

**Chapter Seven: The Chieftain, Part Three**

"Luna, what are you doing? You're supposed to be escaping!" The Doctor's ghost, or temporal hologram, or whatever he wanted to call it, sailed along after her as she ran up into the castle. Her heart was pounding.

"I'm finding Dumbledore," she said grimly.

"Luna!" he appeared suddenly in front of her. "You can't!"

She tore through him, feeling a faint chill. "I have to," she said, and with that she closed the distance between herself and Dumbledore's office.

The entryway was open, the statue thrust hastily aside. She darted up the stairs and into the office, where Dumbledore was standing beside the broken window and looking out onto the school grounds.

"What a clever witch. It's a wonder that you were the chosen one. I never thought much of Harry Potter myself." Dumbledore turned slowly around, looking at her through his glasses. Eyes that she had only ever known to be merry were cold and hard. "I never thought much of the Luna that went to school here, either. I guess it just goes to show you how different a person can become under different circumstances."

"Why are you doing this?" said Luna, panting.

The Doctor's ghost hung back, watching what was happening through a crack in the door.

"Why? Look at this world," said Dumbledore. "I read that book of yours. How could I ever let things go back to the way they were?" he said. "War. Death. Destruction. The lives of four little people are not much to pay for…"

"For the Greater Good," interrupted Luna. Dumbledore smiled at her. "And it's not just four people. Everybody I ever knew is dead now, because things have been changed. The Harry, and the Ginny of my world…they don't exist anymore. That isn't right."

"If you asked your dear friend Harry to put it right – to go through all that pain and suffering, just to change the world back the way it was – do you think he would do it?" asked Dumbledore.

Luna thought. She hadn't really considered it. And she was surprised to find that she didn't really have an answer for him. "But…it's not right," she said. She started to back up as Dumbledore advanced on her. "Things shouldn't be…"

"Miss Lovegood," he said mildly, "I have been obeying the orders of the Chieftain for my entire life. I am not going to stop because one little girl tells me it isn't fair – that it isn't right."

"The Chieftain? You know…"

"Of course," he said. "She has directed my actions for many years now. It was she who ordered me to follow the Doctor, under the name of Al Dorian. She told me that the time would come when he might interfere with our business, here in the magical world," he said.

Dumbledore strolled casually throughout the office, finally coming to stand next to the phoenix. He stroked his hand down its back. "Amazing bird. He dies, and is immediately reborn in a new form. Time Lords and Ladies, they live the same way – always changing."

"I am, perhaps, the only one who remembers Before." Dumbledore smiled. "I can't remember it all clearly, now – I have so many different realities jumbled together in my head. She was looking for a way to change the war – to change everything – and she came to me. Back when she still called herself the Time Witch."

"We worked together. Planning it all out, so carefully – each little change throughout time a ripple effect. The first thing to do, of course, was to get rid of the houses. Hogwarts resisted it, of course. We had to settle for keeping the house names, in the end." He smiled.

Luna listened to all of this, stunned into silence. Then the Dumbledore she had known had been a part of this, she thought. At least, in the beginning, he had. The changes had slowly been changing him, too, she realized, as each of the actions of the Time Witch – the Chieftain – had turned him into the man who now stood there, facing her.

For the first time, it really occurred to Luna that she too had been changed, changed without ever realizing that it had happened. Her memories of Hermione had gotten her trapped inside St. Mungo's, and suddenly everything became clear to her.

The time loop, the one that the Doctor had rescued her from, hadn't just been some random occurrence. It had been time resetting itself, over and over again, as the infinite number of changes the Time Witch had been causing played out.

And the Luna that had remained, she thought, was a Luna that had been willing to forget everything just so she could forget the truth.

And suddenly, the idea of truth became a brightly burning beacon to her. She would stop at nothing, Luna finally decided, to make the world right again. The moment she made this decision it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

She stood up straight and stared Dumbledore straight in the eye.

"You'll have to kill me, then," she said. "Because I refuse to give it all up."

"As you wish," said Dumbledore, raising his wand.

"No!" The Doctor's ghost came roaring into the room them. Dumbledore stumbled back. "Come on!" he shouted, making to grab her hand and passing right through her.

"All right!" Luna took off running, staying as close to the ghost as she could when she discovered that his silvery glow illuminated enough of the darkened corridors that she could still see where she was going without pulling out her wand.

They were halfway to the great hall when the Doctor briefly flickered out of focus. "Amy and Rory must be getting close to the boundaries of the castle," he said. "We had better move quickly!"

Luna started running faster. She was almost to the Great Hall when she saw one of the hooded figures leap out from the shadows, nearly grabbing her before she managed to dart under his arm and out of his grasp. In that moment, she caught sight of his face and her heart threatened to leap out of her chest.

Neville? She thought in horror. Then he was working for Dumbledore too.

She burst out of the doors and stumbled to her knees. The Doctor's ghost had just whipped around to see whether or not she was all right when all of a sudden he faded from view, leaving Luna completely alone. That was that, she thought. They must have all reached safety.

Slowly she picked herself up, starting to run again. She turned toward the Forbidden Forest, seeing it now as her only hope for escape. Neville and a second hooded figure appeared as she entered the woods.

"Let her go," said the second figure, whose voice sounded horribly like Remus Lupin's. "She'll never make it out alive."

Luna dashed through the undergrowth for what felt like an hour, finally coming into a small clearing where she collapsed to the ground. She didn't know how she had kept herself up for as long as she had – her legs felt as if they were made of rubber, and there wasn't a part of her that wasn't numb.

She was sitting there, barely able to even think, when she heard a rustling in the undergrowth around her. She turned around, looking up to see a centaur standing above her with a quizzical look on its face.

"Who are you?" it asked.

Luna thought. After a long moment she shrugged. "I'm nobody, anymore. In this world I don't even exist."

"Hello, Nobody," said the centaur after a little while. "I am Firenze. And I don't exist in this world, either." He moved closer to her, and she could see that he was in fact the centaur that had helped Harry during the war, so long ago and never before.

"Firenze," she said. "Can you tell…I mean, can't you feel…"

"All centaurs feel it. The illusion. The not-right," he said.

"I need to get out of here," said Luna. She meant the forest, and she meant something else too. The centaur seemed to understand both. He knelt down in front of her, and Luna scrambled on to his back. Moving at a slow trot he ran deeper into the woods. Deeper, in fact, than Luna had realized there even was. Finally the trees began to think out and the ground became rockier, and they emerged in a small clearing that led towards a narrow path into the mountains.

"Go that way, and you will be off Hogwarts grounds," he said. "You should be able to Apparate away."

"Thank you," said Luna, sliding off his back.

The centaur eyed her for a long moment. "You will bring things back to how they are meant to be?" he said.

"If I can," said Luna. "I promise."

"Then my race thanks you, Nobody," he said, and bowed deeply before turning around and disappearing into the woods. Luna waited a long moment, and finally she took the long and winding path upwards.

"How long do we have to wait here?" said Amy.

"Until the Doctor wakes up, I suppose," said Rory.

They were sitting down inside the Shrieking Shack, watching the Doctor's body as it lay prone and still unconscious on the floor. They didn't know how much time had passed, and Amy was beginning to grow restless.

"There's got to be something we can do," she said. "We've faced vampires and Daleks and who knows what else."

"Yeah. But they've got magic wands," said Rory.

Amy fell silent. "There's got to be some way of waking him up," she said after a few more minutes. She suddenly seemed to make up her mind and, getting down on her knees, leaned over the Doctor's body. She slid his Sonic Screwdriver out of his pocket.

"Oh Doctor…if you don't wake up, I'm going to have to mess around with this and…oops! Possibly break it," she said. She began pressing random buttons. There was a high pitched whining and a bright green glow. She continued to mess with it for five minutes until it started to hiss and with a shriek she dropped it, clutching at her hands. She narrowed her eyes.

"All right, so I guess that wasn't enough, eh?" she said. Another long moment passed. Then, with a shrug, she leaned forward, and before Rory could realize what she was going to do and yell out in protest Amy kissed the Doctor full on the lips, clutching at the lapels of his suit.

"Aaagh!" The Doctor suddenly shot up, pushing Amy off of him. "I thought you'd gotten that out of your system!" he said, scooting back and away from her. Then he stopped, turning around. "Hello, Rory."

"You're awake!" shouted Amy. "Oh, thank God!"'

"And we're stranded here in this little magic town place without a witch to get us out of here," said Rory. "So what do we do now?"

"Why don't we find some of that green powder stuff and a fireplace?" suggested Amy. "Seems to me you don't need magical powers to work that."

"That would be a great suggestion," said Rory, "if we weren't being hunted by people who want to kill us."

"Actually," said the Doctor, "that's still not that bad of a suggestion." He slowly got to his feet, ruffling his hand through his hair absently. Spotting the Sonic Screwdriver laying on the floor, he glared at Amy. "Accio Sonic Screwdriver," he joked, holding out his hand. To his surprise, it flew off of the ground and straight into his hand. He stared down at it, and Amy and Rory stared at him. "Well, that was unexpected," he said.

"Lumos," the Doctor said, giving the Sonic Screwdriver a little wave. All of a sudden it lit up bright green, filling the small dark room with light. "Nox," he said, and everything went dark again.

"Doctor," said Amy, slowly getting to her feet and moving over to him. "Do you have magical powers?" she said.

"I can't have magical powers. I'm the Doctor. I don't do magicky thingies."

"Oh come on," said Amy. "You know you want magical powers."

"I do not!" said the Doctor. "That would make things too easy. I like a challenge."

"Come on!" said Amy. "Try something. Like…what was that one Luna used? Wingardium Leviosa?"

"I'm not going to say it," said the Doctor.

"Oh come on! Just try it! It would be so cool if it worked!"

"Amy…" the Doctor warned.

"Oh, come on!"

"Fine. Wingardium Leviosa," he said, swishing and flicking the Sonic Screwdriver. All of a sudden a small stone at the center of the room floated up into midair, hovering there for a long moment until the Doctor went reeling back in shock and it dropped back down onto the ground.

"I told you!" said Amy.

"How is this possible?" said the Doctor.

"Maybe it was the magical energy from when that wizard tried to kill you," said Rory helpfully. "Like…since it couldn't kill you, it had to go somewhere, so your body absorbed it. Something like that."

The Doctor turned and stared at Rory. "I hate it when you're smart," he said, seeming slightly annoyed.

"All right, so this will make things easier, won't it?" said Amy. "You can do magic type things to help us escape. Then we can find Luna."

"Yeah. That could work," said the Doctor, though he didn't seem to be too happy about his newfound magical abilities. He glanced ruefully at the Sonic Screwdriver once again, and then with a sigh he pointed it at the window. The glass shot out. "Ready?" he said, looking at Rory and Amy. They nodded. "Geronimo!" he said then, leaping out and onto the ground below.

"There they are!"

The Doctor cringed, but luckily the men who had spotted them were still turned away. "Stupify!" the Doctor shouted, and they fell down onto the ground.

"How do you know all these spells?" said Amy.

"I got bored, I flipped through a magic book. So sue me, I have a good memory," he said. They ran around the prone bodies of the men on the ground and headed towards a row of houses. "Somebody's home, somebody's home…" said the Doctor, darting around and looking in windows. "A-ha! Empty," he finally intoned. "Alohomora!"

The door to the small house flew open, and he quickly ushered the others inside, slamming it back behind him. He pointed the wand at the fireplace and it quickly caught on fire, lighting up the small room. They heard shouts outside – presumably more of the Dumbledore's followers finding the ones that the Doctor had knocked unconscious.

"I need some of the green powder stuff…" said the Doctor, looking all around the mantle. There was more shouting and he looked up, then over at Amy. "Oh all right!" he said. He marched to the window and yanked it up a fragment. "Accio green powdery stuff!" he hissed.

After a short moment there was a faint crack of broken glass, yet again, and a small leather pouch came flying into the Doctor's hand.

"Breaking a lot of windows tonight," said Amy.

"Reparo," said the Doctor, pointing the wand over his shoulder. "There. I fixed it."

"You did not!" said Amy.

"You're right. I didn't. But I could have if I wanted to," said the Doctor.

He opened up the pouch, measuring a small amount of the powder into his hand. "All right, so let's review. Step into the fire, say the name of the place where you want to go…"

"Where is that anyway?" said Rory. "We can't go back to the Leaky Cauldron, Dumbledore would know to look for us there."

"We can't go back to the Potters," added Amy.

The Doctor paused. "Will it work?" he said to himself. Then he shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

He threw the powder into the flames and it glowed a bright green. The Doctor stepped into the flames. "TARDIS!" he called out, and suddenly he felt himself zooming along. He came crashing out, covered in soon, in one of the least commonly used rooms of the TARDIS. In fact, he didn't even think he'd used the study since his seventh incarnation. It was a great place for introspection he thought, dusting himself off as he moved away from the fireplace just in time for Amy to come crashing in.

"Are we in the TARDIS?" she said, craning her neck and looking around.

"Study," he said.

"I didn't know it had a study. It's cozy," she said. At that point Rory came crashing in, and he stayed down on the ground for several moments before Amy knelt down to pull him up.

"Oh, we're in the study," said Rory.

"You knew there was a study?" said the Doctor.

"I found it a month or so ago. It's a great place for thinking," he said.

"What do you have to think about?" asked Amy.

"No time for that!" shouted the Doctor. He scratched his head. "You're giving me a headache," he murmured.

"No, almost being killed and then getting magical powers is giving you a headache," said Amy.

"That too." The Doctor looked around for a moment, locating the door, and stepped into the hallway of the TARDIS. He moved along with Amy and Rory close at hand, opening random doors until he finally located the hall that would lead him back to the main room and console of the TARDIS. "We need to find Luna," he said. "But we can't chance taking the TARDIS back to Hogwarts. At least, not right away."

"So where do we go?" said Rory.

The Doctor stopped. "Well, if Dumbledore was the enemy it makes sense that Luna would go to the enemy of her enemy for help, wouldn't it?"

"Er…yes?" said Amy, a confused look on her face.

"Just what I thought!" said the Doctor. "Back to the Ministry!"

The Ministry was dark when Luna Apparated in. It reminded her very much of something that had happened long ago, or perhaps not at all anymore. In her mind she could still see herself and her friends battling the Death Eaters that fateful night. It was that memory, she told herself, that was now keeping her going.

She walked through the large, empty room, glancing over at the statue of the Chieftain. She muttered a not so nice word at the statue, and was standing close to the entrance into the main rooms of the Ministry when she heard a wheezing that made her heart leap for joy. She turned just in time to see the TARDIS materialize, and she went at a run towards it.

She threw herself into the Doctor's arms as he stepped through the door and he held her close. "There you are!" he said. "Right as rain. I knew I hadn't lost you yet," he said.

"What the hell is going on here?" said a voice all of a sudden. They all turned to see a tall, handsome man standing not too far from where Luna had been when the TARDIS arrived. He was dressed in deep emerald robes and his dark black hair was turning silver at the temples.

Both Luna and the Doctor swiftly pulled out their Sonics. "Are you with Dumbledore?" asked Luna.

The man stopped in his tracks. "No. And I can see you aren't either." He glanced from one to the other, then held up his hands. "Any enemy of Dumbledore's is an enemy of mine," he said simply, taking a step towards them. The Doctor and Luna glanced at each other and at the same time dropped their wand and screwdriver.

The man came towards them. It wasn't until he was next to them that Luna saw the small green snake peeking out of the collar of his robes.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he said. "I am the Minister of Magic. Tom Riddle."


	8. The Chieftain, Part Four

**A Doc, a Looney, and a Box**

**Author's Note: **What was originally supposed to be a two-parter turned into a four-parter. Awesome! I guess it is because I have been planning this particular storyline for a long while now and am just now getting around to it. Anyway, without further ado, here we go. Part Four.

**Chapter Eight: The Chieftain, Part Four**

"Tom…Riddle…" Luna took an automatic step back, feeling herself grow cold as she looked at the human face of the man who had killed so many people in the world she used to know. He turned slightly, looking at her quizzically.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked. Then he reached out his hand toward her. "Please. I know that you see the wrongness of this world, just as I do. I want to help you."

Luna stood still. Then, cautiously, she reached out and took his hand. It was warm, and she was surprised to find that she felt comforted as his fingers closed around hers and squeezed them gently.

"My name is Luna Lovegood," she said. "The real Luna Lovegood. Or, I guess I should say, the first."

"It's good to meet you," he said, with a curt nod. "Please, all of you. Come with me."

"Tom Riddle?" mouthed Amy to Rory as they walked in behind them. She, too was pale, remembering all the terrible things that Luna had shown them earlier. Was this a trick? Amy certainly seemed to think so. She kept her eyes on Riddle, and they were gleaming with suspicion as they followed him into the heart of the Ministry and all the way up the lift until they arrived at the floor that housed his office.

He led them into that office, taking a seat behind a wide desk. "The Ministry is weak," he said simply. "As it has always been. We have tried to control what goes on at Hogwarts, to control the power that Dumbledore exerts over the magical world. But so far, we have been helpless.

"It seemed like such a good plan. Engage the magical races. Unify them, make us all one. But something was lost, you see," he said. He stopped suddenly, sighed. "Very few rise to power now, who weren't appointed to. I had to fight to become the Minister of Magic. I have never been a favorite of my old headmaster."

"For good reason!" blurted out Amy, before realizing that it probably wasn't the sort of thing she ought to have said. She snapped her mouth shut and Riddle only glanced at her before sighing, unfolding his hands and laying them flat.

"And what about the Chieftain?" said Luna. "How is she involved in all of this?"

Riddle laughed, sounding defeated. "Who knows?" he said. "Some people don't even believe she really exists. She moves in and out of our world, like a shadow. She's written about in all of our histories, and only a handful of people have ever seen her face."

"So…you've never met her?" said Luna.

Riddle stopped, staring down at his desk. "I never said that," he finally conceded. "I have seen her. Once, when I was a boy. She saved my life."

Albus Dumbledore stood in his office, staring at the wall. His eyes were shining with a strange, unearthly passion. He knew that something had changed, in the world. Something had changed, yet again, and this time he hadn't been the one to change it.

He sat still, his attention focused on a small golden coin in the palm of his hand. Then, taking a deep breath, he ran his thumb along the edge so that a new date appeared on its surface. He had barely had time to turn his attention back to the wall when the air around him began to shimmer and a woman stepped out of nowhere, her capes billowing around her for a moment as if caught in a breeze.

"Yes, Albus?" she said, her bright eyes shimmering as she stared at him.

"They have finally come. The Time Travelers," said Dumbledore, trembling a little as he ducked his head down in obeisance.

He heard a faint gasp. He looked up. She was staring at him as if perplexed, her brows furrowed. "The…Time Travelers?" she repeated.

Dumbledore nodded. "I attempted to dispose of them, my lady, but they were able to escape. I believe that they made their way toward the Ministry of Magic. I thought it best to summon you before pursuing further action."

"Quite right," she said. She stepped forward, leaning down and placing her hands flat on the surface of his desk. "This is going to be difficult, Albus," she said. "But we can do it. For the Greater Good," she said.

Dumbledore ducked his head down again. "For the Greater Good," he repeated, although there was a tremulous tone in his voice, a moment of uncertainty that was beginning to betray him. The Time Witch reached forward, placing her hand on the side of his face.

"Albus," she said. "It will work. You have to trust me," she said.

"Of course I do," said Dumbledore. "You're the only one I trust."

She smiled, more beautiful in that moment than anything that he had ever seen. "Good," she said. "This is what we're going to do."

She leaned forward and whispered something in Dumbledore's ear. After a moment he leaned back, his eyes wide as he stared up at her. "You can't mean…" he began.

But the Time Witch only nodded, her hair spilling over her shoulder in an ebony cloud around her face. "I mean exactly what I say," she said with a vicious smile on her lips.

Back in the Ministry, Riddle, Luna, and the Doctor were busy making their own plans. "we need to stop Dumbledore, once and for all," said Riddle.

"What we need is to get time back into it's proper place," said the Doctor, and Luna nodded mutely beside him.

"Time? Proper place?" said Riddle, seeming surprised.

"You couldn't possibly see this – but this isn't how things are supposed to be. There's a not rightness about this world you live in because it's an illusion – a construction put into place by a single Time Traveler who has done a lot of harm, even though she believes that she has done a lot of good," said the Doctor.

"Hermione," said Luna, squeezing her eyes shut. It was difficult for her to believe that anything so horrible could have been masterminded by one of her oldest and most dear friends, but all the evidence was pointing now to that being the case.

Hermione had to be the Time Witch, she thought. Or at least, the Time Witch had been born out of the woman that used to be her friend, even if she wasn't the same person anymore.

And the Time Witch was The Chieftain.

Which meant that even somewhere in the distant future, The Chieftain was committing the same terrible acts throughout witch and wizardkind, all in the name of the Greater Good.

Everything that Luna had ever thought true was suddenly being turned around. Dumbledore evil, Tom Riddle a force of good, and all her friends – even herself – willing to forget the lies and illusion. This wasn't the world she knew, she thought. These weren't the people that she loved.

And all of a sudden the fleeting thought came to her that if she couldn't get them back to the people they were meant to be she didn't want anything to do with this world. She would leave it be, she thought, and go away with the Doctor forever. She would never have to face this lie, ever again.

Maybe she could finally be happy.

But the Doctor seemed to guess that these were her thoughts, and as she turned toward him he caught her eye and, holding it for a moment, gave her a long, low shake of the head. Luna took a deep breath.

And that was it, she thought. She had to do something.

She had to fight.

"Doctor," she said. "How are we going to do this, then?" she said.

"We're going to do what we should have done a while ago," said the Doctor. "We're going to find Hermione. Come on," he said, striding straight out of Riddle's office. Amy and Rory followed close at hand, but Luna waited for a long moment before turning to Riddle.

"Whatever happens," she said, "I will remember that you were good, and that you could have been good." And, surprising everybody, she leaned across the desk and threw her arms around his shoulders.

"And in this other world," he said. "Was I a man called Voldemort?" he asked.

Luna's eyes widened.

"She showed me, and she stopped me," he said. "And that man is not me. Go, Luna, and if the man that exists now never exists in your world, then that is as it should have been."

Luna nodded, and turning around she ran from the room before anything else could stop her. They fled to the TARDIS, locking themselves up inside it as the Doctor ran to the console and began pressing buttons and darting from side to side looking as if he wasn't quite certain what he was doing, which was probably the case.

Amy scooped up Puff before she could get in the way, depositing her in a side room before returning. "What are we doing? Where are we going, exactly?" she asked.

"I'll know when I know," said the Doctor vaguely.

Luna, Amy, and Rory all suddenly looked concerned as the TARDIS began to wheeze and they felt he familiar jolt that meant that they had taken off somewhere into time and space.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of Number Four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank-you-very-much. They weren't he sort of people who didn't like things that fit neatly where they ought to – and this was why, when a strange blue box appeared suddenly outside their door late one October evening, they regarded it with more than a little suspicion and a lot of alarm.

"What is the meaning of this?" said Petunia, staring through the window as a man in a tweed jacket stepped out of the box, followed by two young women and another man. Her eyes widened. She didn't know how four people could possibly have fit into such a small area. "We've reported in," she said. "What does the Ministry want with us?"

Vernon's mustaches twitched violently. "Probably paperwork to fill out or something," he said. "Don't worry, dearest. I'll take care of it," he said.

He went to the front door and yanked it open. The man in the tweed coat was standing there, hand hovering in mid-air where it had been poised to knock.

"Hello!" he said. "I'm the Doctor."

"What do you want?" asked Vernon. "Er…I mean, how I can I help you?" he corrected. "You're with the Ministry of Magic, I presume?" he added.

"Er…something like that," said the Doctor. "May I come in?" he asked, and without waiting for an answer he strode into the little house. His friends quickly followed, Luna looking around with mild surprise at the Dursleys and their young son, who was sitting in a high chair eating a bowl full of cereal.

"So…you're muggles," said Luna, somewhat surprised at the Dursley's easy acceptance of magic. This, too, was another thing that should not be. She had heard many things about the Dursleys, and never before would she have expected them to let a group of travelers into their living room.

"Of course. We pay our taxes to the Ministry, we fill out the Census. What do you want?" said Petunia, trying and failing in her effort to not sound spiteful and nasty.

"We wanted to ask you some questions," said Luna. "About your sister and nephew. The Potters."

"Oh," said Petunia. "Them. I don't know why you're asking me about them. Haven't seen them since before the boy was born. I'm too good for her, now that she's got a spot in the Ministry. Muggles don't have much to do with witches and wizards, do they?" she said with an injured sniff.

"Never mind that," said the Doctor. "I was wondering if you knew anything about a woman who calls herself The Chieftain."

At once Vernon Dursley seemed to perk up. "Oh, her," he said. "Of course we've seen her. We're blessed, aren't we, dearest?" he said to Petunia. "Not many muggles get a chance to speak to Herself directly."

"You've spoken with her?" said the Doctor. He moved toward Petunia suddenly.

"Y-yes!" she said.

"We need to find her," said the Doctor. "Immediately."

"I…well…oh, bother!" she said. "Vernon, get the coin!" she said.

He looked over at his wife, and realizing that it was in his best interests to do what she said (never mind the four strangers), he disappeared up the stairs for several moments, finally returning with something clutched in his hand. The Doctor put his hand out and Vernon dropped it into his palm. The Doctor leaned down, looking at it.

It looked almost like a normal coin, except that it wasn't. Luna reached over and picked the coin out of the Doctor's grasp, mouth dropping open in surprise. She had seen a coin like this before, and it was most definitely one of Hermione's creations.

"I know this," she said. "It's…hers," she added.

"Thank you," said the Doctor. "We'll be going now," he said.

"Well, I never!" said Petunia. All four travelers left the house, letting the door slam shut behind them. Luna stared down at the coin.

"Well," she managed after a moment. "Shall we give it a go?"

"I think so," said the Doctor. "No…wait. Not yet. I know where we ought to go."

They got back in the TARDIS, and once again they were off. All of Luna's attention was now turned on the coin that she held in her hand. She wasn't certain quite yet what to make of it. The TARDIS roared to a stop and everybody stepped out. It was, once again, like déjà vu. Luna stood outside of the garden of Harry's house.

"Doctor," she started, but stopped when he shook his head. He pointed at the door just in time for Harry to throw it open and come rushing out.

"Luna!" he gasped. His eyes were open wide and he was gasping. "I remember!" he said simply. "I remember everything."

"You…what?" she said.

"The boy who lived, the chosen one…everything!" he said. "I thought that I had gone mad! But now…you…and not you…" He closed his eyes now, shaking his head slightly. "I can see it, so clearly in my head. The world that should have been. And I don't…why?" he said.

"Because you've traveled through time," said a voice. Everybody standing in the small garden suddenly stopped and turned. A beautiful woman was standing there, watching them quizzically.

"I would think you'd appreciate the world that I've made," she said.

Luna suddenly glanced down at her hand, realizing that she had been clutching the coin tightly for some time now. She must have activated it, she thought, without even realizing it. Absently, she dropped the coin down on the ground. It was too late to turn back now, she thought. Too late to do anything but wait and see what was going to happen.

"Time shouldn't be tampered with," said the Doctor. "It's not some playtoy…"

"Did I ever say it was?" said the Time Witch. She waved her hand around. "Look. It's so much better," she said.

"I liked it just the way it was," said Luna sternly.

"Oh?" The Time Witch turned around, fixing her gaze on her. The smile on her face faltered for a moment as their eyes met and she was forced to turn away before too long. "My only mistake was in thinking that you wouldn't get involved, Doctor," she said. "Luna should have been caught in the Time Loop, back in St. Mungo's. She would have been safe there."

"She would have been erased from existence!" said the Doctor.

"And she'd never have known," said the Time Witch. "As for Harry…well, I thought that he'd be able to adjust better. And he was doing so well, until the lot of you arrived," she added with a little snarl.

"But…I remember," said Harry. "And now I don't know what's real!" he shouted.

The Time Witch laughed. "Ignore these heathens, Harry, and embrace the world that I have created for you. For all of us! A world where your parents live…where all the war and strife you've ever known never happened," she said.

Harry's eyes widened, and he seemed to be remembering a great many things that he had forgotten. All of a sudden he took a deep breath. "I…I don't…" he stammered.

"Harry," said Luna. She moved toward him, folding her arms around his waist. "Remember who you are," she said. "It's the things you've been through that made you who you were. Who you are," she corrected. She reached up, brushing a hand through his hair.

"But…so many people…died…" Harry stammered.

"Harry." Luna put a hand on each side of his face. "That's life. My mother died too, Harry. Do you remember?" she said

Harry started shaking, but in the middle of it all he slowly began to nod his head.

"You're one of my best friends," said Luna. "And if I can't have Hermione back, just yet, I'm bloody well not going to lose you," she said.

All of a sudden Harry fell back into the grass. The Time Witch gasped, darting forward, but the Doctor grabbed her and held her back as Luna leaned over Harry. She placed her hand on his forehead, holding it there for a long second. Then, when she pulled it away, a familiar scar was marking his skin there. His eyes opened, flashing a bright and brilliant green.

"You're right," he said. "Luna…I choose the real world over this one. I choose you…over her!" he shouted. He pointed at the Time Witch and she shouted angrily, stumbling back.

"They're remembering the world, as it was…and it's making the world as it should be," said Amy in astonishment, as all around them things began to move and shift and change. The Time Witch fell down to her knees.

"All I've done…everything…"

"You were mistaken," said the Doctor. "You can't be blamed for thinking that it was best…"

"No…no! I will find a way!" she said, and as reality tried to force its change on her she disappeared, moving to who knew where else in time and space.

And then it was just Luna and Harry sitting there, on the grass. "I remember Hermione, too," he said, adjusting his glasses as he sat up in the grass.

"Good," said Luna. "It was getting ever so tiring being the only one who knew how to hold on.

Harry ducked his head down. "We have to get her back," he said. "Somehow."

"And we'll find a way. But for now…Harry?"

He glanced up at her, and Luna smiled. "It's been far too long since I had dinner with you and your family. Do you think perhaps you could invite me and my friends in, for a little while?"

Standing up and brushing the dirt and grass from his robes, Harry moved to the door where Ginny had just arrived and was staring out curiously. Two young boys darted out the door, staring up at the Doctor as he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and gave it a small wave.

"Does he still have magical powers?" hissed Amy to Rory as they were ushered inside. And Luna was handed a small girl, with bright red hair – her namesake, as it so happened to be.

And although it was not the end, Luna thought to herself that if there were going to be more moments like this in her life then she might just get a chance to live happily ever after, after all.


End file.
